Silver has a reputation for being gold’s less desirable sister, but make no mistake, silver may still be a golden opportunity to invest in.

You might be surprised to know that silver plays a part in many everyday things you use, especially electronics. Silver has the highest electrical and thermal conductivity of all metals. The use of silver is very prevalent in the photography, consumer electronics, medical, and high tech industries.

A huge future super consumer of silver will be the green technology sector. The primary technology that converts the energy of light into electricity in solar panels is solar cells, also known as photovoltaic cells. Silver is the primary ingredient used in these cells; depending on the type, up to 90% of the cell may be silver. Future silver consumption by the solar energy industry is estimated to be 100 million ounces by 2015.

Another area silver may be set to gain steam is in batteries. Lithium ion batteries were first commercialized over 20 years ago by Sony, which makes them very old from a tech perspective. Many concerns have also been raised about their safety. Some research is showing that silver oxide and silver-zinc batteries might be a substitute. Imagine if a company such as Tesla switched to using silver as a main component of their batteries. Hint: they just ordered 2 billion automotive-grade lithium ion cells from Panasonic.