There's been some talk about independent power generation here lately, so I thought some of you would be interested in this:
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=scienceNews&storyID=731909...
New solar cells that are 5x more efficient than the current 6%.
I should point out that there are a LOT of resources on alternative power on the web. Don't rely on this list unless your interest is purely casual.