Precious Metals
Industrial Uses of Silver
Along with being prized for its gleaming beauty, silver holds an invaluable role in a number of modern industries. As a metal, it holds an unparalleled degree of electroconductivity, making it ideally – and uniquely – suited to certain applications. (For exactly these reasons, in 2025 the U.S. Secretary of the Interior added silver to the critical minerals list.)
Globally speaking, more than 33% of all silver produced is used by the electronics industry. That effectively means that if you have an electronic device, it’s got silver in it – and helps illustrate exactly how much demand there is for this precious metal.
Of course, electronics aren’t the only place we can expect to see silver. Read on to learn more.
Table of contents
Electronics
Silver’s exceptional electroconductivity means it enables electrons to flow between one part of an electronic device to another with minimal resistance. That means manufacturers who implement silver are creating devices that save energy and act faster than devices that don’t use it.
In practice, silver goes into microchips, printed circuit boards, sensors, semiconductors, and electrical contacts – which virtually encompasses each level of the electrical system for many devices. Silver is an essential component in LED screens, and will play a similar role in flexible screens as those become more mass produced.
Here's an assortment of modern electronics devices and their reliance on silver:
- Smartphones: Each phone uses ~0.25–0.35 grams of silver in circuit boards, switches, and solder. (Sounds tiny, but multiplied across 150 million new phones a year sold here in the U.S. essentially half the population replacing their devices annually, all requiring silver!)
- Semiconductors: Silver’s unmatched conductivity makes it the go-to material in high-performance microchips and solders.
- Every laptop and desktop computer contains 0.75-1.25 grams of silver (300 million units sold annually)
- Every large server or industrial computer has 2-3 grams of silver.
- Flat-Screen TVs (LCD/LED) each require 1–2 grams (roughly 200 million sold worldwide annually)
- Gaming consoles: Every Xbox has ½-1 gram of silver (50-60 million sold worldwide yearly)
- Wearable & medical devices: Fitness trackers, smartwatches, and especially medical equipment like hearing aids and imaging sensors require silver.
- Advanced diagnostic machines (MRI, X-ray etc.) rely on silver-based films
New applications for silver in the electronics sector are being developed all the time. At the microscopic level, silver is being used in conductive inks to print miniature electronic circuits. Similarly, nanoscopic silver inks can be printed onto flexible and lightweight materials, granting a new level of electronic mobility.
As technology gets increasingly smaller but is still expected to operate efficiently, silver’s importance (as the metal with the highest level of electroconductivity) will only grow.
Defense & aerospace electronics
The U.S. military has long treated silver as essential for precision guidance and communications. Silver is used in almost every defense application – not in massive amounts, but in mission-critical components:
- Missiles & Guidance Systems: Silver is used in high-reliability electrical contacts, relays, and navigation systems where failure is not an option.
- Satellites & Spacecraft: Silver-zinc batteries power many military and NASA spacecraft. These batteries are chosen because they can deliver huge bursts of power in critical moments.
- Military Aircraft: Silver is required in avionics, radar, and weapon systems
The Pentagon’s Defense Logistics Agency has historically stockpiled silver specifically for its role in electronics, optics, and energy applications.
Solar Energy
Another growing field that sees silver at the forefront in its application is solar energy. Photovoltaic cells – being the cells that turn solar energy into electricity – rely on silver-based inks for their conductivity. Without the silver paste or ink in place, they simply wouldn’t function. Each solar panel contains ~15–20 grams of silver.
The demand for solar energy is continually rising, leading to approximately 40% annual growth in the number of solar panel installations around the world in 2022 and 2023.
With 300+ million panels produced annually (as of 2025), that’s 4,000–6,000 metric tons of silver every year (roughly 10–15% of global mine output).
With that in mind, and considering silver’s role in enabling the technology to function, we can see there will be no slowing of demand for silver on this front, either.
Automotive
Silver has played a crucial role in the modern automotive industry, in part through its synergistic functionality with electronics (in fact, silver contacts enable virtually every electrical action in a modern vehicle).
That’s not the only way that silver is used in automotive manufacturing, however, particularly not lately.
Hybrid vehicles use between 18 to 34 grams and battery electric vehicles use up to 50 grams per car. As the auto industry goes more green, silver will be a bigger part of the scene.
Photography
In early photography, silver provided an important function through its high reflectivity and sensitivity. The Yale University Art Gallery explains that negatives relied on silver iodide to serve as a light sensitive material, while silver nitrate helped form the paper prints.
Photography has obviously changed a lot since then, but silver’s particular light-based properties have not. Silver-based films are a popular medium for many commercial production companies due to their light-capturing ability, and, in developing countries, act as a component in inexpensive X-rays.
The demand for silver-based photography is on the rise, leading to an increase in demand for silver from this sector.
Brazing and Soldering
There’s a lot to be said for keeping it together – and that’s exactly what silver does, serving as the metal glue that keeps any number of industries running. There’s no substitute for creating leak-resistant and corrosion-resistant bonds between metallic parts, giving silver solder a place in virtually every factory. Silver-brazing alloys, meanwhile, can be used for joining steel, copper, and nickel together, making them suitable for everything from the aerospace industry to air conditioning and refrigeration purposes.
BGG - About the Author
About Peter Reagan
Peter Reagan has covered precious metals and the economy for Birch Gold Group for over 15 years. His articles have been featured in several leading publications, including Newsmax and Zerohedge. At Birch Gold Group, Peter leverages his deep market insights to help educate website visitors and customers on why they should consider diversifying their savings into gold and other precious metals, and how that process works. Due to this commitment to education, his content has become a trusted source of information throughout the industry.
BGG - CTA Option 2
