That sounds ideal, but it fails for a few reasons: 1. When upper middle class people go off grid, it drives up electricity prices for poor people (fewer people

That sounds ideal, but it fails for a few reasons: 1. When upper middle class people go off grid, it drives up electricity prices for poor people (fewer people paying for the infrasturcture), making them poorer. Adelaide, Australia is a good anecdote for this. 2. People are addicted to near 100% reliable electricity supply. It is far cheaper to achieve this on a regional scale than on a household scale millions of times. 3. The power grid still needs to service all industry and commercial end-users. 4. Individual self-sufficiency is not necessary if we are already sufficient on a regional scale. It only makes sense to do so if your grid electricity is too expensive or unreliable. Self-sufficiency in and of itself is selfish (I got mine!)