The Big Switch - Switching Back?

In the book, "The Big Switch", author Nicholas Carr draws a comparison between movement toward a central power grid to the more recent movement toward cloud based computing services.

In his book, Carr, discusses how power was first created essentially by self operated generators. These generators had to be maintained by their owners & their businesses thrived or failed based on their ability to generate power at a reasonable cost for prolonged periods. However, the advent of alternating current allowed for the development of power stations & the ability to purchase only the electricity needed while also eliminating the need for maintenance.

Carr, comparatively, concludes that purchasing hardware & maintaining large servers is becoming cost prohibitive. And, much like the transition of electric power, computing is moving through a similar transition. Cloud computing allows for the purchase of only a required amount of computing power while eliminating overhead & maintenance costs.

I think cryptocurrency mining will most likely help continue the trend of cloud computing as a service utility. However, as the mining of cryptocurrency continues to use larger quantities of power, it is possible that alternative sources of power generation will lead to alternative options outside of public grids.

Is it hopeful to think that larger scale cryptocurrency miners will be incentivized, or otherwise circumstantially prompted, to fund alternative energy generation?