Electric cars sit charging in a parking garage at the University of California, Irvine January 26, 2015. “The Irvine Smart Grid Demonstration”, a $79 million project funded half by federal stimulus money and half by Edison and partners like UC Irvine, was launched in 2010. The $12 billion utility's research team Southern California Edison is testing everything from charging electronic vehicles via cell phone to devices that smooth out the power created by rooftop solar panels. Those are some of the roughly 60 projects in the works at Edison's Advanced Technology division. It has a small $19 million annual budget, but its influence far exceeds that. (Photo by Lucy Nicholson/Reuters)

A Slovakian company has designed an egg-shaped and cozy micro-home that should work ideally for anybody who wants to “go off the grid” and “live off the land” – the Ecocapsule.

Vehicle lights illuminate a street after a massive blackout, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Thursday, September 22, 2016. Puerto Ricans faced another night of darkness Thursday as crews slowly restored electricity a day after a fire at a power plant caused the aging utility grid to fail and blacked out the entire island. (Photo by Carlos Giusti/AP Photo)

Workers prepare the roof of a house to get installed solar power modules for producing heat on October 15, 2011 in Wessling, Germany. Germany has and is continuing to invest heavily in solar energy, both in the public and private sectors. The German government introduced a feed-in tariff with its Renewable Energy Act in 2000 that guarantees homeowners a minimum rate for selling electricity from renewable energy sources into the nation's electricity grid. (Photo by Alexandra Beier/Getty Images)

Bryan Berg was introduced to card-stacking by his grandfather at the age of 8. He is a self-taught artist in all of the techniques he uses today. Berg's freestanding card structures are based on a grid-like arrangement, which Berg tested in a structural engineering lab to support 660 lbs per square foot―using no tape, no glue, no folding, and no tricks.

Period-costumed actors participate in the 150th anniversary re-enactment of the surrender of General Robert E. Lee to General Ulysses S. Grant at the Museum of Confederacy in Appomattox, Virginia, April 9, 2015. (Photo by Jay Paul/Reuters)

Back in 2010, French photographer Antoine Bruy began hitchhiking around Europe without any fixed route. Along his travels, he met people who had entirely abandoned city life in favour of an isolated country existence they found more fulfilling. Bruy began seeking out people who lived off-the-grid. After three years on the road, staying in makeshift houses and on community farms, he has released Scrublands, a documentation of the lifestyle. While each living situation is different, Bruy found that all the people he met shared a common desire to escape the rat race and achieve a quieter life in harmony with nature. (Photo by Antoine Bruy)

N.C. Dezendorf, wife of the general manager of the Electro-Motive division of General Motors, christens the new lightweight “Aerotrain” at the company's locomotive works in La Grange, Ill. on August 22, 1955. (Photo by Edward Kitch/AP Photo)