This work presents a theoretical analysis of optical and electronic properties of uniform and random silver (Ag) and aluminum (Al) nanowire (NW) layers. At low concentrations of NWs the uniform and random layers possess similar average transmittance in the visible spectrum. However, at high concentrations of NWs the random Ag and Al layers demonstrate up to 38% and 45% average transmittance, respectively. Moreover, at high concentrations of NWs the uniform and random Ag layers outperform identical AI layers up to 15% and 5% average transmittance, respectively. Our results indicate that metallic random NW transparent conductive layers benefit in optoelectronic devices demanding lowest sheet resistance, such as solar cells and light -emitting diodes. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.