Innovative technology developed by Cypriot scientist Dr Yiannis Ieropoulos that uses urine to provide electrical energy was widely used at this year’s Glastonbury Festival.
The technology which uses urine-fed Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs) was used to power the festival’s giant screens.
Ieropoulos is head of the Bristol BioEnergy Centre (B-BiC) which operates in Bristol Robotics Laboratory (BRL) one of the most advanced robotics research centres in the world.
Ieropoulos and his team developed the technology which is now being continuously tried and tested under the trademark ‘PEE POWER’.
The technology is able to convert urine into energy powerful enough to charge a mobile phone or to turn on lights in a building.
Ieropoulos and his team placed mobile toilets accommodating up to 40 people at a time at this year’s Glastonbury Festival.
The urine that was collected was converted into electrical energy which was used to power the Festival’s large screens.
Ieropoulos explained that ‘PEE POWER’ has been used for the last two years at Glastonbury but this year was the largest such promotion and use of the technology with the 40-man public toilets being the largest the group has constructed within the framework of the project.
Ieropoulos and his team hope to develop the technology to a level where it will help improving the lives of people who live in refugee camps and poor and underdeveloped countries around the world.
