Martin Rosenberg | Feb 25, 2011

Power in a small box? Skeptics say that fuel cells will never multiply to the point of offering an alternative to centralized, large, power-generation plants.

Nuclear power is too difficult to finance in today's economic climate.Sunshine may be free but solar power is far from being commercially viable.

Such is today's conventional wisdom in the energy industry.But conventional thinking could be dangerous in these times of economic stagnation and political and policy gridlock in America.With Washington under siege for years to come as a result of our nation's chronic federal deficit, the profound change needed in our energy sector is not likely to be nurtured top-down by federal largesse.

Rather, the future will belong to grassroots entrepreneurs who will come up with the technology to totally transform how we put the glow into our bulbs and the song into our iPods, industry thought leaders say.They will share their insights at the third annual EnergyBiz Leadership Forum to be held in Washington February 28 - March 1.

The theme of this year's event is Energy Game Changers.It will be about companies like Bloom Energy, which has developed what it says are "among the most efficient energy generators on the planet."

The company, a decade old, was cofounded by KR Sridhar, a renowned scientist noted for his work on Mars flights and exploration. Fortune magazine hailed him as "one of the top five futurists inventing tomorrow today." The Bloom technology runs on a variety of renewable and fossil fuels. When the company had its initial public offering of stock earlier this year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Colin Powell were on hand, as was John Doerr, the noted venture capitalist who helped launch Google. Doerr has hailed Bloom Energy as "a disruptive technology."

The Washington forum will also showcase NuScale Power, which has developed small, 45-megawatt nuclear modules that are scalable into 540-megawatt units. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu has opined in the Wall Street Journal, "If we can develop this technology in the U.S. and build these reactors with American workers, we will have a key competitive edge."

The forum will also feature SolarCity, which has pioneered a business model that puts solar on homeowners' rooftops where it will crank out electricity that costs less for the consumer than conventional power streaming out across a metropolis, courtesy of distant coal, natural gas or nuclear-powered generating stations. The company serves 500 communities in Arizona, California, Colorado, Oregon and Texas.

Lyndon Rive cofounded SolarCity just four years ago, the latest of a string of efforts that started with the very first company he founded in South Africa - at age 17.

Rive will be speaking at the forum, along with leaders of Bloom Energy and NuScale Power.They will be joined by utility executives, state and federal legislators, policy makers and leading industry thinkers who will talk about changes coming to the energy sector and their sweeping implications.