Put the power sources right at homes and a lot of difficulties can be solved.The biggest waste of energy is transmission over long distances. the DC and AC battles of the past were won only because AC has the ability to be trnsmitted over long distances without excessive resistance. The best way to solve this is bring the power sources closer to where it is needed. The cost of electricty would plummet if there were no grid to maintain.
All thse projects are good ideas IF the industry and customers are close by.
But anyway, here's a bit from Wiki on socialism:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_socialism