There’s a cool download I saw at http://www.thingiverse.com, a printable wind turbine.   Now Thingiverse has some 30,000 different objects and a new one is added every 5 minutes or so, but this one may be one of the most significant.  With a few hardware store parts you’ll be creating electricity that could be used to run the printer itself or other things.  This is 3D printed Energy.  The question used to be asked, “What would you want if you were trapped on a desert island?”  Answers ranged from a Bible to a gun to a hot significant other.  Perhaps in the future people will answer this question with, “Duh, a solar powered 3D printer”, because with it you can make just about anything else…well maybe except the hot significant other, but that’s another post.