Solar Powered Tents - The Sunny Side of the Roughing It

Solar powered tents are the wave of the future - but, sadly, in the future these eco friendly tents must remain at the moment. The go green concept tents were dreamed up by the company Orange and are just fascinating in the things this futuristic tent can do. 'Roughin' it' has taken on a new meaning when your neighbors have internet web surfing, lights, and even heat! And, even better, this sustainable lifestyle is totally off the grid.

Come along as I tell you the coolest, more innovative things about the new concept tent of the future - the Solar Powered tent.

You'll see links throughout this article with an arrow to the left - these links will take you to items of what I've written about so you can either see pictures of what I mean or additional article information.

As an aside, I couldn't find any picture of Orange's Solar Powered Tent that were legal to use on this article. The accompanying picture is licensed under the Creative Commons license on flickr.com by Vassilis online.

The solar powered tent was designed with festival goers in mind. Festivals are generally held in large open areas, mostly treeless, and designed to house many people in tents, campers, or portable living areas. Most people who attend a festival, sure as the Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert every year camp in their tent in the same camping spot for a week or ten days. Living a week to ten days with electricity or any of the modern conveniences can not only be challenging but irritating too.

The concept solar powered tent will enhance camping to new levels by offering the following very cool innovations:

1. Solar panels that can be moved around during the day to maximize the harnessing of solar power.

2. Photovoltaic Fabric - what that fancy word means is that specially coated solar threads will be woven throughout the solar powered tent's fabric to help maximize the solar collection. Perhaps one day, the solar panels will become obsolete and only these solar fibers will collect the solar energy.

3. Glo-cation technology - this is probably my favorite thing about the solar powered tent. You know how you might be visiting a friend across the campground and go to return to your own camp and there's a thousand that look just like it? Well, with Glo-cation, you can use your cell phone to send an SMS text to your tent which will then glow in response. It'll 'beam you in', Scotty!

4. Ground heating. The solar powered tent's floor will automatically heat up when it the inside air reaches a certain temperature. You'll be all warm and toasty inside your own heated tent, one day.

5. Wireless internet and a control hub. You'll never be out of touch again with the internet running right inside your tent. A touchscreen LCD will tell you how much energy you harnessed, how much you're using and any baseball scores you're interested in...

The best thing about solar powered showers? You can get one now!

Even solar powered tents won't help you take a shower so why not invest in one of these solar powered showers? We tote one along on the boat with us so that, after a salty day of fun and sun in the Chesapeake, we can rinse off right on the boat deck. All we have to do is fill one of these solar showers, set it in the sun, and it warms quickly and thoroughly.

While you wait for the concept solar powered tent to become available, here's a few of the top selling tents on Amazon.com.

Since the solar powered tent is just a concept at the moment, I suppose we'll have to 'rough it' with solar powered chargers for batteries and other things we need for camping (at press time, there was no solar powered blender...).Anyway, here's some solar powered battery chargers that will keep your cell phone, iPod, or other necessities working.

Solar powered battery chargers

When my parents lived in Arizona and made frequent trips to Laughlin, NV, I bought them one of these 12 volt coolers for their car. All they had to do was plug it into the cigarette lighter and I was sure they'd have cool water and snacks for the trip. I think everyone should own one of these 12 volt camping refrigerators - they're perfect for camping, boating, tailgating, etc.

Koolatron P95 Travel Saver Cooler 45-QuartCHECK PRICE

Koolatron P9 Traveler III Electric Cooler/WarmerCHECK PRICE

Igloo Cool Chill 40 with 110V ConverterCHECK PRICE

RoadPro 12V Deluxe Camping RefrigeratorCHECK PRICE

Kargo Kooler 12V Camping RefrigeratorCHECK PRICE

Come on, you know you're thinking something! I love to hear from my readers; the good, the bad and the ugly comments are all welcome.