GotWind? No, got a new way to charge a cellphone

Stuart Corner
Thursday, 01 July 2010 10:57

Opinion and Analysis

UK mobile operator Orange in conjunction with renewable energy company GotWind has come up with a novel way to charge a mobile phone in the absence of conventional power sources.

Some 35 years ago comedian Billy Connolly penned an ode to the versatility and utility of the wellington boot.

" Eff it was nae for yer wellies, where would you be?
You'd be in the hospital or infirmary
'Cause you would have a dose of the flu or even pleurisy
Eff ye did nae have yer feet in yer wellies!

Oh, wellies, they are wonderful; wellies they are swell
Cos they keep oot the water and they keep in the smell
An' when yer sittin' in a room, you can always tell
When some bugger takes aff his wellies"

Today he could add another verse on the virtues of rubber boot: charging a mobile phone. Orange and GotWind have developed a pair of wellies that will charge a cellphone battery while you tramp around the fields. It was developed specifically for participants in UK's midsummer festival of music held in Glastonbury.

According to GotWind,  "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'¦After a full days festival frolics you can plug your phone into the power output at the top of the welly and use the energy that has been generated throughout the day to charge your phone."

Here, according to GotWind, is how it works. "Inside the power generating sole there are thermoelectric modules constructed of pairs of p-type and n-type semiconductor materials forming a thermocouple. These thermocouples are connected electrically forming an array of multiple thermocouples (thermopile).

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