Orange's recharge Pod tent to keep mobiles juiced at Glastonbury

For those fortunate enough to be planning a trip to this year's Glastonbury, you can rest assured that forgetting your mobile charger won't be the worst thing that could possibly happen. Reportedly, Orange will erect a seven-meter high recharge Pod tent in which patrons can stop by and reinvigorate their winded handset. Said tent will boast 500-watt solar panels and a 500-watt wind turbine in order to generate electricity for the lifeless phones, and Orange is hoping to juice up 100 devices per hour. If only such conveniences were everywhere...

[Thanks, Adam]

[Joey @ Jun 16th 2008 10:12AM]

They have a couple recharge stations like this at Six Flags America that you have to pay something like $2 for. I think it's kind of ridiculous, but I can understand why they'd be around.

[OneLove @ Jun 16th 2008 11:17AM]

if they covered that thing in solar cells you could get a better charge.

[morcheeba @ Jun 16th 2008 1:19PM]

... or if they aimed all the existing cells at the sun. I guess if the continental plate suddenly drifted south of the equator, then those north-facing cells might come in handy.

Still a moot point... the festival has been rainy the last 5 years:
http://www.london-weatherstation.co.uk/glastonbury-weekend-weather-watch

[matt @ Jun 16th 2008 10:17AM]

i would pay $2 (£1) to have my phone rechanged right in the middle of nowhere.

i cant stand it when my phones out of battery.

[rony @ Jun 16th 2008 10:20AM]

master I'm feeling weak......take me to the BIG orange pod throbbing with solar energy and slot it in...ahhhhh....gently....ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh

[James D @ Jun 16th 2008 10:24AM]

AT&T had something like this at Coachella this year, in their 'Blue Room'. In addition to being mercifully air conditioned, the room (actually a tent) allowed you to charge your phone for free, just by dropping it off with their staff and picking it up an hour or so later. I don't think it was solar powered, though, which would actually make a lot of sense at an event like Coachella where sunshine is more abundant than necessary!

Overall, pretty handy, though inexplicably they didn't seem to have a charger for my AT&T Tilt. (they had *something* with a mini-USB tip, but it didn't charge the phone at all; I suspect they had a RAZR charger or something that was vendor-locked to only work with Motorola)

[blu-sam @ Jun 16th 2008 10:25AM]

that's cute tent.

[K Nang @ Jun 16th 2008 10:26AM]

100 devices per hour is nothing seeing as there will be at least 150,000 people there over the weekend

i'm goin to glasto but am seriously considering not taking a phone at all.. i don't think N95's much like the mud!

[sully @ Jun 16th 2008 10:26AM]

ATT did this for free at Lollapalooza last year.

As was said before, the AC was far more worth it than the charging.

[hempey @ Jun 16th 2008 10:29AM]

Coachella also has the energy factory where you could charge your phone using pedal power. They also has a wind-powered giant clock and solar-powered DJ station. Ethanol popcorn too, whatever that means...

http://coachella.com/interact/EnergyFACTory

[aKiRa @ Jun 16th 2008 10:29AM]

Doesn't Glastonbury usually rains out anyway? I wonder how useful the solar panels will be.

[stefan @ Jun 16th 2008 10:32AM]

they dont' look much like 500W anyway...

maybe if direct sunlight comes from everywhere at once. But I don't see that happening anytime before the end of our little solar system.

[Orinjz @ Jun 16th 2008 11:57AM]

It's got a reputation for being a rain sodden festival mostly because of 1997 and 1998 which were just insanely wet. A lot of the festival was just huge pools of mud that year. I remember standing in half-dried mud a foot deep just before the Smashing Pumpkins started and then getting knocked over because I couldn't move my feet out the hole fast enough when the crowd surged as they came onstage. Happy memories...

It's not really that bad for the rain normally; if it does, make sure you get a good camping spot up a hill and not too near the base. I'd worry more about the toilets than the rain anyway.

[Brumbo @ Jun 16th 2008 11:04AM]

it'll be covered in puke and mud in a couple of hours....

[MattC @ Jun 16th 2008 11:15AM]

They had a 'non solar powered' tent last year at Glasto. The queue for it was always huge and there was time limit on your charging to keep it moving.... Best taking your on solar panel I reckon ;-)

[Rick @ Jun 16th 2008 11:35AM]

Plenty of iPod charging stations and not enough Port-a-Potties.

[Jamma @ Jun 16th 2008 11:51AM]

Great idea-I hope it is used for the Leeds and Reading Festivals too!

[Eldiablo @ Jun 16th 2008 2:38PM]

Those fortunate enough...

You mean those with enough fortune? Anyway, I had an e-mail a week or so ago to say Tickets were still available in HMV stores in major cities here in the UK for those lucky lotto winners who fancy attending this year.

[Ethan @ Jun 16th 2008 5:53PM]

Will they shun vodaphone, o2 and others?

There's gonna be more awful camphone vids from nowhere near the stage on youtube this year.