If Bitcoin will ever play a major role in the world economy, Bitcoin mining will probably be tightly connected to power plant operators for its unique usage of electricity.
^^ True that.
As another commentator mentioned - technological improvements does not help the issue with the 1:1 price/energy in a wasteful mining system. If Bitcoin is to remain a proof of work then it needs to do something along the following lines...
Fuel -> electrical energy -> hashing -> electricity energy -> consumer.
The market will/would be driven by how efficient you can make the conversion to and from the hashing. The BTC price will reflect how much proof-of-work you can measure. The hashing seems a lot like a 0.01 Ω sense resistor in a circuit. You want it measure work without throwing too much away. Best place to put that sense resistor is probably somewhere within the power station as that's the only place you're likely to get any kind of efficiency.