While this may be a lofty idea, my thought process is that if Bitcoin gets exponentially more profitable for miners than miners will be able to lead the world in new technologies related to power generation. We already have ASIC's on the 20nm scale and even smaller ones in the works for mining machines, so what if we focused on improving the tech behind generating power.
To that end, I think solar cells, wind, and hydro plants are just a natural progression for miners, as you could effectively mine twice, bitcoin and the power to generate it.
Also
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlTA3rnpgzUSolar, wind, hydro just is to expensive to start with. I think people will chase cheap electricity vs something with high start up costs.
The big companies can chase cheap electricity where ever it is. I predict this vs the solar/hydro/wind stuff.