For some off-griders, it's a matter of having little or no impact on the environment -- literally living off the power grid.

CNN: 5 great spots for dropping off the grid

Chowdhury, who formerly headed up IT for the Grameen Bank, describes what happened in off-the-grid Bangladeshi villages when her team put solar power and mobile technology into the hands of illiterate women.

FORBES: Seeing the Business Opportunity in Malnutrition

We take off-the-shelf IT and Internet technology and transform the power grid and electricity transmission lines into an energy Internet.

FORBES: Jeremy Rifkin's Third Industrial Revolution

The young inventor envisages PaveGen systems being used to power off-grid appliances such as public lighting, illuminated street maps and advertising, and to be installed in areas of dense human traffic such as city centers, underground stations and school corridors.

CNN: Green sidewalk makes electricity -- one footstep at a time