Solar panels are a bit of an obvious choice, but I was looking in something called "Earthship Housing", which uses solar energy, but doesn't completely rely on it.
It also uses wind energy, but it uses the sun's rays to heat it as well, using a more passive approach to heating and cooling. Each Earthship has its own water treatment facility, which uses plants to process grey water and black water, and the whole thing is supposedly self-sustaining. This is really interesting, but all of the ones I've seen thus far are situated in a desert climate, so some serious modifications would be necessary.Here's a link to the Earth Ship homepage.
Another thing that piqued my curiosity was something called a "stirling engine". Basically, a stirling engine is a small engine that is powered by the expansion and contraction of a gas inside a cylinder. All it needs to operate is a difference in temperature between the top plate the bottom plate to keep it running. Basically, it doesn't need to burn anything as a fuel source to keep on going, which is really interesting, because it could be put to good use as an electrical generator, I think. It's also interesting, because you can make one out of a tin can and some PVC piping, so it's extremely accessible to almost anyone.
This is the one I found on instructables, and it can run using only a small candle underneath it, but there are other that can just by putting them on top of a cup of coffee or even just on your hand. That's a pretty interesting possibility, I think, and it's something I'd like to build and test out.Instructable
How it works
Tin Can Stirling Engine Plan
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