>>549710I think it's more about moving beyond the systems that both Edison and Tesla dreamed of and moving in to a system where every house and building has its own independent power source and the capacity to produce at least some food and potable water for its inhabitants.
Bloom boxes (individual fuel cell "power servers") are something like that, but while they are independent of the primary power grid, they still require processed fossil fuels to work (for now).
Another take on the idea is a distributed generating grid, where there is no central power generating station, but rather every house/building on the grid generates and feeds power in to the grid. That way, if power gets knocked out in one part of the city, not only does the blackout stay contained, but other parts of the city can shift their power output to the affected area and get the lights back on faster.
These ideas aren't really new, it's just that the technology to make it happen is still in its infancy.
