Rare earth elements aren't really used much in PV at all. The market is
dominated by silicon cells (~95% of the market). The next big player is
Cadmium Telluride (~5% of the market). The rest are pretty
insignificant.
The major one is Indium. Indium Tin Oxide
is used as a transparent conductive electrode used to coat the top of
the cell. Indium production is a potential bottleneck when it comes to
expansion of the PV manufacturing industry and currently costs around
$700/kg. Less than 1000 tonnes per year is produced. However, it looks like it may well be replaced with carbon in the form of Graphene.
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