In earlier less technologically sophisticated times people were pretty much self sufficient when it came to their energy needs.
At most families or villagers would need to get together to co-operate in a group hunt to take down large game.
As civilization has become more sophisticated and developed more and more complex technologies the interdependence levels have grown to where we have had to develop huge centralized energy extraction, benification and distribution chains to fuel our modern toys.
Fossil fuel and nuclear have been the stepping stone but finally we are reaching a point where renewable and specifically solar energy are chipping away at this centralized power generation.
In many parts of the world, where solar isolation is sufficient, household electrical and even transport will soon be able to be generated on a subsistence basis by people living totally off-grid.
Electric vehicles and battery storage are now making it feasible to go totally off-grid and become totally self sufficient in all aspects and relying purely on solar.
A solar only solution had the drawback in that it was only available during the day. We use much of our electricity after sunset and some before sunrise. Cost effective battery storage combined with solar panels is enabling on demand off the grid usage like never before.
The renewable energy revolution has the potential to decentralize energy generation and self sufficiency in ways that haven't been possible since the industrial revolution.