For light with heat, you can't beat a propane lantern.
However, if you're talking electricity, then compact fluorescents or LED lighting is the way to go.
I have an off-grid cabin in N. Wis that's solar powered. Solar suppliers sell special 12V compact fluorescents and LED bulbs, but I've found it's not worth the gain in efficiency going directly to 12V as opposed to the slight loss of using an inverter and buying regular CF's on the cheap.
The advantage here is battery life. A 60 watt incandescent bulb = about 4 CF's of equal luminence...or, put another way, one 15 watt CF = one 60 watt incandescent. The CF's take a few minutes to reach full brightness, other than that, they rock.
If I had a permanent shack, I'd get a single 100-watt class solar panel and mount it to the roof, and have a pool of 3 deep cell (trolling motor type) batteries...one hooked up, one on the charge and one 'on deck'. This is the system at my cabin, and I lived there continuously for 2 months this summer and never lost power. I ran a small stereo, up to 5 standard CF's, a small color tv and a CF yard light (equiv to a 75W flood), though not all at the same time.
Even if you don't bother with the solar panel and just charge a battery to bring out with you, the CF's are going to buy you a LOT more runtime than standard bulbs.
