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• "Any time there is any wind, our power goes out almost 100 percent of the time," Fey said in an interview from his South Africa home. "We always have to have a bunch of bottles of ice in our freezer in case the power's out for a day or a day and a half, then we can stick them in our fridge to keep the stuff cold."
• Peppermint Energy is set to produce some 250 first-run Forty2s, which will ship to 18 different countries, after raising more than three times its goal on the crowdfunding website Kickstarter.
• Inventors, artists and entrepreneurs post their projects on a Kickstarter page, usually with a video presentation, setting a fixed duration for their fundraising and a dollar goal for contributions. If the goal isn't reached by the deadline, no money changes hands and the project is cancelled.
• But Peppermint reached its $25,000 goal in just 5 days, eventually raising more than $83,000 from 284 backers over the month. Anyone who donated more than $500 is getting one of the first-run units, which are expected to ship before Christmas.
• The product's name is a reference from "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy," in which "42" is the ultimate answer to life, the universe and everything.
• The Forty2 might not be the answer to everything, but Fey sees a great need for easy-to-use portable power sources in remote areas. Fey, who also distributes water filtration systems and is now looking to become a Forty2 distributor, said he saw a link to the Forty2 on Facebook.
• "Even if there were a few of these devices spread throughout the communities, it would be a huge help," he said.
• The Forty2 will initially retail for $799, with a $100 discount for preorders. Nearly all of the parts and the assembly is being done in the upper Midwest
• The fold-up unit features 200 watts worth of solar panels, a 500-watt-hour lithium Ion rechargeable battery and three built-in AC outlets. Devices can run both directly off the solar panels and off the battery, depending on how much power is needed. The panels recharge the battery when the draw is low.
• "There's really not going to be any dials or switches or anything," Fey said. "It's just you open it toward the sun, plug your device in and it works."
• The Solar Energy Industries Association reported more than 20 utility-scale photovoltaic projects were completed during the second quarter, marking the largest quarter ever for solar panel installations.
• Smaller, off-grid solar ventures are harder to track, said Monique Hanis, an SEIA spokeswoman.
• Hanis said a recent industry conference in Orlando included a panel that dis

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