The problem with physics...
The problem with the physics it is no respector of a reputation gained in another area. The issues regarding communications would have been solved one way or another - if it wasn't Ethernet that won out, it would have been something else. It suceeded through a sort of Darwinian process, and just shows how all pervasive a technology can be if it is available cheaply and can be freely adopted by entrepreneur companies. Fundamentally, once the immense capital cost of R&D is done, the incremental costs of communications is very low.
The problem of power generation is a completely different issue. It's not just a matter, as it was with the communications revolution, of technologies emerging from other areas which presented the opportunity. The technological direction of semi-conductor production virtually guaranteed, that in a reasonably free market, it would get exploited in this way. It is almost impossible in a western market to suppress cheap, exploitable technology. It oozes out through the cracks of veted interests and fills the voids and suddenly you are in a different world.
There is absolutely no such obvious cheap technology direction with power generation. Well there was, but it's called fossil fuels, and the resources laid down over many 10s of millions of years are being used up at a colossal rate. Beyond that it gets difficult - the fundamental power of the universe is nuclear fusion. Almost all natural systems on the Earth are powered by it one way or another (tides and the inner heat of the Earth are exceptions). However, the technological exploitation of this in a cost-effective manner, whether directly, or indirectly through trapping the SUN's energy, weather systems, biofuels or the like is an extremely tough problem. There is no guarantee that if it is done, that it will be cheap.,
Stating there is a need for something doesn't mean it will happen if the method doesn't exist. We have a need for a cheap solution to health and social care. That is never going to happen (well maybe if the robots take over, but then they probably won't have much use for us).