Bear with me please, this will be a little long.

In the interest of preparing for a SHTF scenario I am looking to buy property in the northern part of the US. For the purposes of this discussion lets say Idaho, next to the Canadian border. To ensure that I have everything I will need to on the property before i buy it as far as access/natural resources I am attempting to set up as in depth of a complete living plan prior to committing anything beyond a few months of researching. So far the major snag I have hit is this;

Power/lighting solutions,
When SHTF I would like to be prepared for the instance that power will never come back to the grid. For this eventuality I will have a superinsulated house equipped with a rocket stove for heating during winter, an ice house for storing game and supplies during the short summers, and plenty of underground storage for supplies in various places.

The one thing that I am missing is power or some sort of lighting. All of the renewable energy sources out there are flawed in that they tend to rely on one thing that is destined to fail eventually; batteries. I have yet to see a system that doesn't use them to some extent that they wouldn't be crippled when the battery stops working. Even using RE the only viable options I would really have is either water or wind power due to the lack of light during long winter months and each of those would present their own issues. (lack of wind, -0 temps)

Looking into rudimentary lighting the only option I could find would be to continually render fat from animals I kill (time consuming) or establish a bee colony and use their wax to create candles.

The bees are what I am leaning more towards right now due to the added benefits of having the colony nearby as well.(food, medicinal) The only issue is the speed at which they would produce the wax and the lack of efficient light from normal tapers made from wax.

Lighting is a main concern due to how soon the sun goes down in the more northern reaches. Without some form of lighting in the house we would be cut down to only being able to operate from 9am-5pm maximum. I don't expect it to be crazy bright but was hoping for a long term option that would be sustainable indefinitely.