The Pee Power urinal that generates electricity from urine – designed by researchers at the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol) – took centre stage in the Stone Circle at Glastonbury for the second year running. The team of researchers from UWE Bristol, and workers from Oxfam and Dunster House shelter manufacturers, are using the festival as a field trial in advance of planned trials in Africa and India later this year.
The specially adapted urinal first appeared at Glastonbury last year, following its launch at the UWE Bristol student union in March 2015, but this time the team has created a unit twice as big and capable of accommodating up to 25 people at once.
The toilet contributed to the facilities needed on site, but the real purpose behind taking the unit to Glastonbury wss to excite and inform the audience about a technology in its relative infancy that has the potential to change the lives of those living in countries where sanitation and electricity are off-grid. The unit is powered by urine fed through microbial fuel cells (MFCs) that generate enough electricity to light up the inside of the urinal.
More detail on YouTube.