I'll participate towards your first question, the one in the title since I've had this thought before however its certainly akin to conspiracy or ultra heavy future speculation at best.
All markets will move if energy were to become free or near free and currency would be the least of our worries however Bitcoin will still have scarcity and a fair market distribution no matter the cost of mining even if free.  Also at the point that energy becomes free, we may choose other metrics of value such as 'time' like you mentioned. 
I really don't see free energy coming at least not while capitalism exists. Personally I hope we don't see it anytime soon. I don't believe we as a species are mature enough to handle such a responsibility yet.