Energy/matter generator, collector, transmission, distribution, and effector (motor-like) system. Has anybody considered throwing up miniature, efficient electricity generators throughout the envrionment/landscapes? Power generation, through the Faraday electromagnetic induction effect where magnetic flux causes flow from a coiled wire, could be wirelessly transmitted or even harvested over wires to local subnodes which would make for convenient harvesting systems. Electrical aggregation would involve minimal travel over the landscape on some monthly routine, followed by distribution and use of the energy. The typical conceptual solution is to just use solar panels, but this has the unfortunate requirement of lots of surface area, which is somewhat limited on planet earth in terms of getting permission from people who "own" land and whatnot. And as a long-term solution, throwing up photovolatics typically takes energy away from the greens, so that's also something to watch out for. Setting up simple wind turbines and other ways of utilizing energy would be much more interesting and effective, especially with networks that could be deployed by simply tossing coke cans on tethers. These tethers would be the wiring and local aggregating network edges, and the coke cans or something would be the vertices with the simplified hardware for electricity generation. An interesting question to ask would be at what scale would it be practical to have it wirelessly transmit power to other nodes, and at what scale would it be completely impractical? Most of the nodes and vertices aren't going to be generating much electricity, if ever, but at the same time it could possibly be aggregated to transmit energy, yes? This is the same methodology used in wireless neurotransceivers and other systems.
http://amasci.com/amateur/coilgen.html -- William Beaty's ultra-simple electricity generator with spinning magnets
http://heybryan.org/docs/neuro/