Something is brewing over in the United Kingdom and it is a bit more substantial than afternoon tea.
The UK's Energy and Climate Change Minister, Greg Barker, recently claimed that an energy revolution in Britain could take place and as a result, decentralized energy production would reign supreme.
Though the market is still in a nascent stage with only some 500,000 home energy systems in all of the UK, there is great potential for growth that will eventually challenge, and then dethrone the "Big Six" of British energy as hegemon in the sphere.
For us non-Britons out there, the Big Six is a group of extremely powerful energy companies who have controlled over 90% of the domestic market in Britain since the energy sector was privatized in 1990.
These major companies are British Gas, EDF Energy, E.
ON UK, npower, Scottish Power, and SSE.
Though separated by thousands of miles, Barker and Mosaic President, Billy Parish share the same thought process when it comes to energy decentralization and democratization.
Both men seek to empower millions of homes and businesses and give them the ability to electrify their needs with clean, renewable energy; all the while challenging the status quo where giant utilities hold ratepayers in a headlock.
At a recent Conservative Party (not America's Republican Party) conference, Barker stated,

I want to unleash a completely new model of competition and enterprise.
I want to encourage a vast new army of disruptive energy players to challenge the Big Six.
From individual consumers to community groups, entrepreneurs, SMEs (small and medium enterprises) and FTSE giants, I want them all to consider generating their own energy at real scale, as well as starting to sell their excess energy on a commercial basis.
A decentralized power to the people revolution - not just a few exemplars, but tens of thousands of them.
The Big Six need to become the Big 60,000.

Off-the-grid solar energy Decentralized, distributed generation will eventually be commonplace around the world, but it actually faces a greater challenge in developed nations rather than developing ones.
Right now, small-scale solar panels are proving to be extremely cost-effective in electrifying rural, off-the-grid locations in Africa, Latin America, and Asia where either transmissions lines don't exist, aren't reliable, or energy production costs are prohibitive.
In these locations, there are no powerful electricity companies that can exert outsized influence and threaten ratepayers with the impending doom that would accompany homes paying for themselves and selling surplus electricity back to the grid.
Barker is calling for a huge exhibition of people power, where the demos rises and true prosperity can be attained by all.
I am a firm believer that money speaks volumes, and when policy, innovation, and public consciousness are in harmony, there will be no stopping the decentralized energy revolution as not only will it ethically be the best option, but also financially.
If Great Britain with all of its rain and clouds can pull for solar power, America will have no problems cementing its place among the solar energy superpowers of the planet.
Barker cites falling costs of solar and other alternative energy sources like wind, geothermal, biomass, and hydropower through technological advances and market maturation as a reason that millions of British citizens can and should heat their homes for less.
Additionally, investments in the field would ensure that there are plenty of local jobs that can never be outsourced and capital remains at home, not abroad.
The British path to true prosperity is not totally smooth as the minister did concede that the British government can play a part by cutting red tape to streamline adoption of the new technologies.
Despite this forward-thinking member of Parliament, there is still at least one other prominent voice that is anxious to hinder green energy's inevitable advance.
Chancellor George Osborne actively wants the United Kingdom to not be a global leader when it comes to fighting climate change and emerging energy fields because it would negatively affect the country's competitiveness; hardly what his compatriot Charles Darwin would have felt about adaptation and survival.