A nice industrial user-story has emerged from 3D printing company Stratasys that shines a light on a company working to improve energy supplies in developing regions around the world that require better, more consistent and lower cost electricity supply. The delightfully named Peppermint Energy has used Stratasys 3D printers to develop its ‘energy in a suitcase’ concept that in turn is set to help individuals spur economic development, participate in emerging industries and access educational opportunities in areas of the world that don’t have reliable access to electricity.
According to the International Energy Agency, there are 1.3 billion people across the globe that lack access to electricity — a huge number that is rather humbling when I consider how much my family and I alone must waste in a given week with lights left on etc, even while our daily routines depend on electricity so considerably. Here in the UK, and other developed countries, it’s not hard to see how easily we take power supplies for granted. At least until we don’t have it at our finger-tips — literally — as evidenced by the uproar during the Christmas period when weather-induced power cuts took their toll.
For people that don’t have finger-tip access to electricity however, life is more challenging. The South Dakota-based Peppermint Energy company has been working on a solution that comes from the company’s belief that “we have to use solar power better.” Its flagship product has been designed to do just that. It is called the FORTY2, a portable system (array) that draws energy from the sun to provide enough power for applications that include lighting, refrigeration of medicine and/or food and power a laptop, with a battery connected to the array to store power when the sun is down.
Brian Gramm co-founded Peppermint Energy and he was researching large-scale renewable energy, such as wind farms, when a totally new approach dawned on him. Rather than trying to make green energy look like the old, big-plant electrical grid, why not generate power right where it is used, and let consumers have their own miniature power plants that can go anywhere?
“There are situations where large-scale solar is right, like office buildings. But the things that most of us use daily, most often, really don’t require much power,” said Gramm. But it wasn’t just the domestic home-soil applications that motivated the team — thinking globally, the fundamental difference a product like this could make in places like earthquake stricken Haiti was a massive influence.
During development of the FORTY2 and for functional testing, Peppermint Energy’s development team used Stratasys Fortus 3D printers produce the prototypes. The size of the FORTY2 system (3 feet wide) was a primary factor in determining the use of the Stratasys technology. And so was the need for a robust housing strong enough to hold all of its electronics while being field tested — often in the middle of a field, initially and then on the ground in Haiti.
“It’s only when you see it in physical form that you realize the form and function should be the same,” said Gramm. Using Stratasys FDM 3D printing technology, the team was able to quickly make modifications, allowing for fast improvements and saving an estimated $250,000 in tooling costs. For example, a power switch is unnecessary; just opening the FORTY2 turns it on. The Peppermint team also decided to make the whole device even smaller than intended after carrying the first prototype proved awkward. Something that out in the field made it even more accessible.
The video below gives more insight into the development of the FORTY2 and the company behind it:
Beyond the product development itself, it is the belief in what they were doing and why they were doing it that gives this case study such a feeling of authenticity. Once again, 3D printing proved to be an enabling tool that facilitated a valuable product.
