3D Printers

Spor: 3D Printed Solar Power For Portable Devices

The benefits of being able to get online with a smart phone, alongside the multiple applications that work without doing so, are many and varied enough for smart phones to have been the product of the first decade of this millennium. In places in the world where electricity distribution infrastructure is limited, the increased rate by which new technologies spread compared with older one’s has created a problem. You’ve got a portable device, and few places to plug in to charge up. What are you doing to do? The team behind Spor believe they have an answer…

Spor has a vision statement: ‘To make clean energy more accessible and affordable for the world.’ Green issues have become a contended matter for some. Perhaps an onus upon climate change has blinkered us to the uncontended reality that humans have pushed many species to extinction, which has a feedback effect on the food chain, including for us. Also, unless technologies produce new means of recycling the output, the processes involved in our energy and product creation will mean the Earth’s resources will become increasingly limited. Amidst all this, Spor, a portable solar panel with 3D printed elements, is seeking crowd funding.

Spor largely avoids the ecological angle in their pitch. What with the rise in questioning of science and increased split in public opinion regarding some green issues, concentrating on a more intermediate human benefit promotes the features of this product and the direct benefits for the potential customers who will buy it. The team behind Spor phrase the problem as this:

The team also says that Spor is ‘easily assembled, which means it’s affordable to make and affordable to buy. We’re not out to put your pockets on a diet.’ The general cost is $50 but early birds can get one for $35 via the crowd funding campaign that has just gone live. The device has a 3D printable shell, one of just four component elements in the design that makes assembly extremely easy. The unit is sized to be pocket portable. Spor users can link up the chargers to daisy chain charging, and power multiple devices at the same time, whilst the device itself is charging up.

Solar power is one of a number of highly accessible energy sources. I’ll get to some other interesting solutions for this problem at the end of the article: As far as I can tell, Spor is doing nothing paradigm changing. But what it is doing it appears to be doing well.

The Spor team is aiming for USD$100,000 funding. There will be uses for the device in the developed world, but it is primarily the developing world that the company has in mind as a market. For those in the developed world, there are a range of other cheap solar panel charging devices available. But there will be applications that this device will be useful for, such as camping trips, cycling long distances, music festivals and so on. In the developing world the device will be less a leisure accessory and more a vital way to connect to the world of business, banking, education and connecting with loved ones, not to mention access to medical support. Where the myriad apps that smart phones avail are useful, the Spor will help those who cannot charge mobile devices by conventional means and thus access the tools such devices provide.

To close, a few other devices that provide analogous functions. The Flame Stower is a charger that uses the heat from a camp fire in a highly portable means to create electricity. Mainly pitched to the developed world for camping trips, you can find out more from the site. The BioLite HomeStove is a small, cheap, highly efficient stove that produces electricity whilst the user cooks by burning tinder. It’s a reminder that 3,000,000,000 people in the world, almost half the human population, still cook on open fires. This technology is aimed at the developing world and provides an interesting alternative approach to the same problem that the Spor addresses.

It’s great to see 3D printing helping the Spor fulfil it’s potential. You can find the new Kickstarter campaign here and the website here.