It's possible to produce electricity with a solar collector and sell whatever you don't use to the power companies. It would be a similar setup to the way things are now, except that the electricity would be produced by solar collectors on people's roofs instead of from burning coal or from hydro or nuclear power. The beauty of it is that the space is already disrupted from it's natural state because of having a house or other building on it, so no other natural spaces would need to be disrupted because of it.

http://www.backwoodssolar.com/interests/sellpower.htm

All it takes is a little imagination and some spunk. People can do what is needed.