Now, "Power Wellies", from UK mobile phone company

ERJ staff report (DS)

Glastonbury, UK -- As the traditionally muddy UK music festival season begins, there is a new innovation for music-lovers: the Power Welly. This involves a waterproof boot which contains a generator, battery and conectors to provide charge for a mobile phone.

European mobile phone supplier Orange, in conjunction with renewable energy experts GotWind, use a unique 'power generating sole' to convert heat from your feet into electrical charge. A battery stores charge generated during the day, and users can plug in after a long day to get a power boost for their phones.

Twelve hours of stomping through the Glastonbury Festival in your Orange Power Wellies will give you enough power to charge a mobile phone for one hour. To increase the length of time you can charge your phone for, simply hot step it to the dance tent because the hotter your feet get, the more energy you produce.

The power collected in the 'power generating sole' is collected via a process known as the 'Seebeck' effect. Thermocouples inside the sole make use of the temperature differential between the cold, wet ground and body heat..

The Orange Power Wellies are the latest innovation in Orange's bid to find alternative sustainable and eco friendly mobile phone charging technologies that can be used at the Glastonbury Festival. Previous projects have included the Recharge Pod powered by wind and solar energy, Dance Charger which drew upon kinetic energy created by dancing and the Orange Power Pump which uses the energy created from a traditional foot pump and converted it into electricity.

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Press release from Orange