Bella Hulls and Leanne Pereira hardly need another reason to spend more time in the sunshine — but now they have one.

Perth is about to become the first Australian capital city to have “smart benches”, where people can charge their phones and access wifi for free.

The solar-powered benches, equipped with a wireless charging pad and USB ports, are popular in Europe. Ivan Lozic, general manager of the smart benches’ Australian distributor Cleanair, came across the technology in Croatia. “We were walking through Split and there were six park benches, five were empty and one was jam-packed,” Mr Lozic said.

“We went to see what was going on and saw the smart bench. We found out the manufacturer was around the corner, so we talked to them and got distribution rights.”

Cleanair and Synergy are testing the benches at this weekend’s Mt Hawthorn Streets and Lanes Festival.

“Perth has such a great solar resource, so the more we can give residents the opportunity to harness it the better,” she said.

The Steora smart benches are installed in Croatia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Belgium, Sweden and New Zealand.

The benches require four to five hours of direct sunlight a day to operate at full capacity. The batteries last about 12 years.

The smart benches feature temperature sensors that activate a cooling fan at 35C, meaning they provide solace from the heat.

Croation entrepreneur Ivan Mrvos, at 20 years old, designed the benches through his company InClude, which won best start-up company and best innovation product.