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Orange unveils the Solar concept — the eco-friendly tent

Posted: 24 Jun 2009 05:13 AM PDT

You might not think that tents are particularly damaging to the environment but Orange has found a way of reducing even the fabric flophouse’s minuscule carbon footprint.

They’ve done this not by reducing the energy usage of the tent itself but by focusing on the recharging of all those little gadgets that you’re bound to have taken camping with you.

Orange, alongside US product design consultancy Kaleidoscope, has used “Cutting edge eco-energy technology” has created a tent that allows campers to power their gadgets from a WiFi-enabled control panel incorporating a magnetic induction driven charging point. The charging point is in turn powered by photovoltaic fabric mounted on three ‘glides’ that slide over the top of the tent throughout the day so they’re always pointing towards the sun.

Kaleidoscope strategist, McKenty Aim said:

The development of photovoltaic fabric will revolutionise festival tent design, in working with Orange we have created a vision of camping that we believe is glimpse to a great future.

The tent also comes with a few other features:

The ‘glo-cation’ feature makes the tent glow when the camper gets close to it (using RFID or an SMS message) so you can find it in the dark!