Herein, we demonstrate a facile approach to synthesize long nickel nanowires and discuss its suitability to replace our commonly used transparent electrode, indium-tin-oxide (ITO), by a hydrazine hydrate reduction method where nickel ions are reduced to nickel atoms in an alkaline solution. The highly purified nickel nanowires show high transparency within the visible region, although the sheet resistance is slightly larger compared to that of our frequently used transparent electrode, ITO. A comparison study on organic light emitting diodes and organic solar cells, using commercially available ITO, silver nanowires, and nickel nanowires, are also discussed.