29 June 2010, 12:00 p.m.

After the country suffered devastating power failures in 2006 and had to endure “load shedding” outages ever since, South Africans no longer trust the national power supplier, Eskom.

Before kick-off in the FIFA 2010 Soccer World Cup there were fears that the country’s erratic power supply might wreak havoc with match schedules. This has not happened but in Cape Town, a group of chemical engineering students were not taking any chances.

According to the University of Cape Town, they have harnessed advanced technology to “Eskom-proof” their soccer World Cup viewing.

The university said on Wednesday that members of the department of chemical engineering had designed a television that is powered by a hydrogen fuel cell.

“The cell splits hydrogen atoms into electrons and protons. The protons pass through a polymer electrolyte membrane, while the electrons form an external electricity circuit that powers the TV before recombining with the protons and oxygen, forming clean water as its only 'waste' product,” the University explained in a statement.

The setup had saved the department from power failure on June 15 during a three-hour power blackout.