TEAM MEMBERS OF GROUP 19:

Darragh McPartlin – Maynooth University – First Language

Nutthida Nuankaew – Stamford International University – Second Language

Pattamaporn Jitphiankha – Stamford International University – Second Language

Rozin Ceausescu – Antrovil Consult – Second Language

Tanzena Fatema Proma – Noakhali Science and Tech University – Second Language

Mogtaba Ahmadi – HU University of Applied Scinces Utrecht – Second Language

Thierry Nsabimana – Compassion International Rwanda – Second Language

UNITED NATIONS SUSTAINABLE GOAL NUMBER 7 – AFFORADABLE AND

CLEAN ELECTRICITY

1
 CONTENTS

Executive Summary Page no 2

Problem -----------2
How its work -----------2
Construction -----------3
Cost of components -----------4
Target Market -----------5
Strengths and Weaknesses ------------6
Cost of manufacturing -----------6
Source of founding for the product -----------7
Future outlook -----------7
Bibliography -----------8

Currency: USD [$]

2
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Throughout this report, the report will discuss in detail about how the Stirling engine
can be used as an electrical source sustainably. The report will also mention what UN
Sustainable Development goal that our product is most relevant to and how beneficial it can
be for our relevant target market. The costs of the manufacturing as well as the costs of setting
up a production plant for the production of the product will be discussed in detail. This report
will also explain why we chose certain slums in India to be our target market and the sources
of funding that we will avail of in order to get this profitable venture started.

PROBLEM
In regard to one of the sustainable goals set out by the United Nations, we have
decided to develop a product which especially targets Goal No. 7, which relates to affordable
and clean energy. We decided to take on this challenge as there are 789 million people
globally without access to electricity, which is simply unacceptable in this day and age. We
decided to come up with a business idea associated with the use of a small and ecological
electric power supply based on a Stirling engine, this cheap generator will produce electricity
sustainably for households that do not have a source of electricity all over the world. In this
report, we will discuss how the product works, where we expect this product to be sold/used,
the costs of manufacturing the generator, where we can get a source for funding as well as our
approach to how we can sell the product by comparing to companies that provide similar
products.
By being able to achieve the targets of UN Sustainable Development Goal No.7, this
can also help overcome the challenges of the other Sustainable Development Goals set out by
the UN, such as access to education as well as clean water and the ability to cook food at
home. We also decided to choose the alpha Stirling engine as our product as from our
research there are no companies manufacturing this kind of electricity generator for a small or
medium series, able to constantly power an electronic tablet or a mobile phone.

HOW IT WORKS

The Stirling engine operates via the use of heat and air to start and maintain the
mechanical work involved with the machine. If one heats a gas (eg air), so it expands and
when it is subsequently cooled, it contracts again.
To heat the gas, we will use solar energy, Fig 1, and for fun when the weather is
cloudy, the engine can start with a cup of tea.

3
 There are a number of different design
principles associated with the Stirling
engine, to explain all of these different
designs would take hundreds of
thousands of pages, so we will discuss
the design principle associated with
our selected Stirling engine. Our
selected Stirling engine is a classical
“alpha Stirling engine”, very similar in
principle to the Stirling engine by
Robert Stirling in 1816. The design of
this selected Stirling engine can be seen with Fig.2 in the report.
This engine has a displacer cylinder near the bottom of the engine with the displacer
piston, while further up the engine, it has a power cylinder with a power piston. The two
pistons are each connected to a connecting rod which is on the flywheel of the Stirling engine.
The power piston is well sealed to the power cylinder. So, when the air expands in the
displacer cylinder because of the heat from underneath, it pushes out the power piston from
above. Then, when the air contracts from cooling, it sucks the power piston back into the
power cylinder again. There is an air gap between the displacer piston and the displacer
cylinder so that air can flow around the piston when it moves. The displacer cylinder has a top
and bottom cylinder plate, which is made of good heat conducting material. For our Stirling
engine, we have selected 1mm thick aluminium
sheets as our heat conducting material.

While this operation is in action, the flywheel

drives a direct current (DC) generator attached to
the plastic support of the motor by a mechanical
transmission (at the solar post to be exact), with
an average rotation of 300 rotations / minute
The power that is given off from the generator is
about 12 volts.

CONSTRUCTION
As a source of inspiration we used the sketches described by Eng. A. Haeuser on
www.reprap-windtourbine.com, made available to our team for a fee during the contest, by

4
Eng. Dieter Viebach in his book “Stirling Engine – you can do it yourself”, located in the
library of one of our team members and a lots of views of similar experiences posted on
youtube
All components of the Stirling solar motor are made of plastic, especially ABS,
using 3D printing technology as can been seen in Fig 3 without the components that are
required for the operation as a solar stirling engine.

Important to know, compared to

the prototypes made so far in the
world, we introduce for the first
time at the output of the electric
generator a dual USB to DC-DC
converter, which ensures a
constant electric current of 3-4 V
and 1.5 – 3 A, similar to the
technology used in the automotive
industry. The power provided by our friendly engine is enough to power an electronic tablet
or smartphone – Fig. 4.

COST OF COMPONENTS
For the cost of the
manufacturing of our Friendly Solar
Electric Power Supply Engine, there
are a number of parts which need to be
printed off for the product using a 3D
printer to print off each component for
the product. We decided to use this
method because it is cheap, does not
require many machine tools, is
environmentally friendly and does not
require highly trained workers.
As a result of the information we received from IRIS ROBOTICS SRL, a Romanian
company specialized in 3D printing, we set a price of 27,5 $ per kg for 3D printed parts.

The rest of the components are purchased from the specialized magazine or from
robo.in, an indian online platforms, joom.com and ebay.com platforms – table nr,1

5
 Component Provider Quantity Price [ $ ]
Printed 3D parts Our team factory 0.400 kg 11
Components for assembly Online shops – ebay.com 0,300 Kg 7.5
Relevant electronics Online shops – robo.in 3 4
USB cable for charging and transfer Online shops – robo.in 1 1.5
Electric Stirling Generator Accesories Online shops – robo.in 1 10
12 V, 50-2000 rpm
Dual USB DC-DC Converter 5 V, max Online shops – joom.com 1 11
3A
TOTAL PRICE OF COMPONENTS 45
Table nr. 1 – costs of components

TARGET MARKET
In regard to our target market, we felt that we should target rural regions in India,
especially with the recent events of how much of an effect COVID-19 has had on the families
living there.
To be more precise of our rural regions, we wanted to target slums which on found on
the outskirts of the main cities in India such as the Dharavi slum outside Mumbai, the
Bhalswa slum outside of Delhi and the Basanti slum outside of Kolkata. These three selected
slums hold the majority of the 61.8 million Indians that live in slums in India as a whole.
We feel that we should be targeting these areas as there is still a significant population
in these slums and very few have access to electricity which can be used for educational
purposes as well as being used for clean water and food. Also, by introducing the alpha
Stirling engine electricity generator, this can allow families access to electricity at a cheap
price. This also means that they can use solar energy during the summer and if the weather
gets worse during the winter, they can use hot water to start the Stirling engine. As the cost of
manufacturing the Alpha Stirling engine is relatively cheap, this can allow the government to
purchase a large amount in bulk to allow those without electricity to have access to such a
resource.
Through its construction, our electric generator also has a strong educational
character, because it sums up a lot of knowledge from thermodynamics. mechanics and
electricity. Thus, we intend to sell our generator through online platforms. It can also be used
as a gadget when you want to spend your free time in a fun way, as we can see in table nr.2.
YEAR: 2022 2023 2024 2025
Expect sales volume for Generators
1000 2000 4650 6500
[units]
Expected sales price [$/unit] 79 79 84 85
Sales Revenues [dollars]
- To public institutions 63.200 118.500 252.000 340.000
- Through online platforms 15.800 39.500 138.600 212.500
TOTAL [USD] 79.000 158.000 390.600 552.500
Tabel 2 – Expect sales for generators

6
STRENGHTS AND WEAKNESSESS
Being a new product on the market, it is obvious that in the first years of its life it will
face many problems generated especially by consumers' distrust in its performance.

STRENGTHS
DC 12-5 V Stirling generator do not have a direct
competitor in the marketplace that embody the
functionality, social good and environmental
benefit like our product does
Employees do not require specialized training. and
the raw material is quite cheap and recyclable
3D printing technology allows us to change the
shape of the product easily with low costs.
Table 3 – Strengths and weaknesses
WEAKNESSES
Consumers do not trust the functionality of the
new type of mini-electricity generator.
Promotion costs are required.
At this early product stage, our electric generator
are beyond the price range of most poor Indian
households living in rural regions
It is necessary to develop a new technical service
model, based on replacement not on repair .

COST OF MANUFACTURING
As well as the actual cost of manufacturing the product, we need to consider the costs of
setting up the production plant that would need to be set up that would have room for our 3D
printer and the inventory for the significant amount of alpha Stirling engines that will be
produced. We decided that we would need a production plant of at least 60 square metres in
order to accommodate for the utilities, water and electricity required for the production. We
also decided that for our start-up, we would buy a cheaper 3D printer which is specialized
in making prototypes, a performant PC for using the
Initial costs [$] Year
3D CAD software as well as various workshop tools
Name of costs 2021
and a test stand. The cost of a single 3D printer
Costs of components 45.000
would be about $2500 USD, and the relevant
Costs of montage and tests 14000
Costs of packaging 1500 workshop tools would be a similar price, meaning

Costs of delivery 2000 that it would cost a total of an estimated $5000 USD
Rent and utilityes 1900 per 3D printing station. If you also take into account
Maintenance and consultancy 4824 the average wage in India is $5600 USD/year, there
Total factory costs 69.224 can be a significant amount of profit made here, the
Sales revenue 79.000 demand for work in these factories will be through
Profit net (after taxes) 8427,5 the roof and the cost of each alpha Stirling engine
Table no. 4 - Initial costs and profit will be cheap, meaning that the Indian government
will buy in large quantities to supply as many people without access to electricity as possible.
In the table no. 4 we present an appreciation of the manufacturing costs and of the profit.
In the first year of operation of our factory in the first 3 years of operation of the
company we will reinvest 70% of the profit in refurbishment and 20% in product research and
development.

7
SOURCE OF FOUNDING FOR THE PRODUCT

In regard to the cost of the production plant, a quotation for a 100 sqm value for
production plant in Noida (on the outskirts of Delhi close to the Bhalswa slum) would cost
around 95.89 USD per month (7.035 indian rupee – see www,statista,com) , to rental. This is
not too expensive to purchase as a start-up company. As well as that, if we were to receive
the $4000 New Zealand dollars, this would make a good contribution to supplement the
acquisition costs costs of the 3D printers and other facilities in the plant. This would mean
that for our funding we decided together that each member of the team to contribute the
amount of 1500 dollars, that is 12000 dollars for Start Up.

INITIAL INVESTMENT USD Company registration 300

3D PRINT CREATBOX DX PLUS 2500 Initial utilities 2600
WORKSTATION DELL T5820 1500 Prototypes 1000
Office furniture 500 Approval and authorizations 1200
Small tools 500 Marketing and publicity 1000
First employess 900 TOTAL INVESTMENT 12000
Table nr.5 – Initial investment

FUTURE OUTLOOK
Overall, we feel that this profitable venture has a lot of potential to really support a lot of
Indians who are in desperate need of support in these troubling times. With this cheap but
important product, we feel that it won’t be too much of a financial burden on the Indian
government, while it will allow millions of Indian access to electricity which could save lives.
We also feel that we have the correct target audience selected and that we feel this UN
Sustainable Development Goal is crucial in order to provide support to as many people as
possible.
We aim to improve the performance of the product made in India in the coming years
and reduce manufacturing costs by purchasing two high productivity 3D printers. By 2025 we
will focus on setting up two more production plants in India and another in Europe and
Romania, respectively, where over 56,000 households are still unelectrified. In the second
year of operation of our business we will introduce on the market a Stirling electricity
generator powered by wind energy, and our research will be aimed at using this type of
generator to produce cold, thus supporting residents of arid areas of the world.

8
 Bibliography

- Dieter VIEBACH – Stirling Engine, You Can Do It Yourself, Bucharest – 1996

- James R SNFT - An introduction to Stirling engine, Digital edition - Amazon.com - 2020
- James G. RIZO – Stirling Engine Projects, Vol 1, Digital edition – Amazon.com - 2020,
www.camdenmin.co.uk/collections/all - 2020
- Jose Romero – Be free with solar energy, Digital edition - Amazon.com - 2019
- M. Forrest - Getting Started in Electronics, Digital edition – Ebay.com
- www.averagesalarysurvey.com/india - 2020
- www.robbo.in
- www.ebay.com
- www.joom.com
- www.reprap-windtourbine.com/ A. Haeuser – Solar Stirling Engine - 2021
- https://www.statista.com/statistics/1037221/india-office-space-rental-values-by-city/ - 2020