Cheap Solar Panels? Princeton Professor Yueh-Lin Loo Thinks It's Not Too Good to Be True

As all of you enjoyed this sunny Easter weekend, I know exactly what you were thinking about: the weather, bunnies, dyed eggs, and…solar panels? If you found yourself squinting up at the sun and saying, “Wow, if only we could find a cheaper way to harness all that energy,” you weren’t alone. Enter a brand new technique developed by the lab of Princeton’s own Yueh-Lin Loo, associate professor of chemical engineering, that promises the ability to harness solar energy at a cost low enough to allow for viable solar energy programs.Loo’s lab developed a power-conducting plastic that could very well replace the expensive indium tin-oxide previously used in the construction of solar panels. These polymers are by no means new to the engineering scene, but past attempts to manipulate and process them have compromised their ability to conduct electricity.“We have figured out how to avoid this trade-off. We can shape the plastics into a useful form while maintaining high conductivity,” said Loo.Loo’s lab solved the mystery of just why molding these plastics cuts their conductivity so drastically (making the polymers moldable causes their structures to become more rigid, preventing the flow of electricity through the sample), and was then able to solve the problem. After processing the polymer, Loo and her colleagues applied an acid to them to prevent this rigidity and—voila!—plastic conductor extraordinaire.Part of the appeal of this technology is how easily the electrodes of the plastic transistors they built can be reproduced. Much like the process you see in action every time you print something off of an inkjet printer, these electrodes are printed on a sheet that makes up the transistor.As for what these findings mean for the future, Loo anticipates that the simplicity of this process will allow for easier access to these transistors, possibly to the point that they’re sold like ink cartridges in the corner store. Also, her lab has expressed interest in pursuing the possibility that these polymers could replace other expensive metals in various devices, as well as indicate infectious disease in patients when used as biomedical sensors.And although some are skeptical that these advances will make solar power competitive with nuclear and fossil fuel due to the transience of solar energy, it’s clear at least that these easy, low-cost mechanisms open the door for a future of solar power that’s looking a lot brighter (yes, pun intended) than it ever has before.For more on this work, check out http://nextbigfuture.com/2010/03/plastic-electronics-could-slash-cost-of.html.