Energy saving is something we're all in favour of here at BigGreenSmile, but how far would you go to power your mobile phone? A new device enables you to charge your phone up with, ahem, how to put this? Pee?

John Vlahakis, founder of green cleaning product company Earth Friendly Products, has written an article on his blog, earthyreport.com, about the PowerTrekk; a portable charger for electrical devices that turns human wee, or (perhaps preferably) water, into power.

The PowerTrekk, developed by SiGNa Chemistry, doesn’t come cheap though. It’s $200 and then $4 a cartridge. The cartridges are the parts that turn the pee into power, and one cartridge will charge up an iPhone about one and a half times before needing to be replaced.

It’s also a product aimed, as the name suggests, at those who are looking for power in the remotest of places. You’re unlikely to find a plug socket up a mountain, but at least you can now take a wee and make a phone call without the risk of some nosey parker reporting you for indecent exposure.

As John points out in his article, at the moment it would be cheaper to invest in a solar powered charger, but "hopefully, one day they can get the scale of economies needed to bring the cost down."

In the meantime the PowerTrekk is perfect for those heading to the dark side of the Moon. As long as they can get a signal.

[Image: UW Digital Collections]