In a world in which all home-use power is generated at the home, the grid would still be necessary, but the volume of power it distributes would not be nearly so large.

I suspect that the parts of the world that will be most interested in off-grid housing are countries where the grid is not yet in place. Once there, it is hard to justify not using it. However, if private homes are off-grid, the benefits of the grid, i.e. the ability to distribute both the supply and the demand remains powerful. Ultimately, in countries like the U.S. I believe the optimal way in which to handle power generation and distribution is with a combination of the grid and local generation. In order to do this, it has to be possible to "run the meter backward," as has been shown to be possible. That combines the benefits of local generation with those of the distribution grid. In short, if my neighbor wants to run his air-conditioner, and his own generation capacity is exceeded, why not let the power come from my facilities, not heavily used because I'm away from the house? Distribution vs. generation cost issues would have to be worked out at the infrastructure owner's end, but it has promise.

RE