#5 Solar Tent
This one will be a breakthrough, if it ever gets to us. For several years now, the folks at Orange and Kaleidoscope have been developing the Orange Solar Concept Tent. A version of the tent was used as far back as 2003 at the Glastonbury music festival in England. The word is that they’re working on a model designed for campers, enabling us to really get off-grid for the weekend, although forested or shaded campsites could be an issue. The truly cool thing about the Concept Tent is its use of photovoltaic fabric, where solar “threads” are interwoven with conventional fabric. If they can get a larger, event-focused version widespread, then a model made for the eco-adventurer can’t be far behind—still in the works but worth mentioning. Here’s the latest from Orange as well as some images.
Image credit: NeilsPhotography at Flickr under a Creative Commons license
Russ Wright
These are all great products! The Solar Light Cap would have been a great contender for the list as well! It provides 3-4 hours of light from a full day’s charge of its built in solar panel and has 4 modes including Alert, SOS, Strobe and Dimmer. It is weatherproof and provides over 5000 hours of free light from the sun through 2 ultra bright LED lights. Check it out at http://www.currentwear.com.