San Diego — April 8, 2026 — At ARPA-E's student session in San Diego this April, the Anthropocene Institute hosted a Birds of a Feather event centered on a challenge: how do you make energy ten times cheaper? The panel, featuring Anthropocene Institute President Carl Page, NASA Glenn Research Center's Larry Forsley, and DCVC’s Rachel Slaybaugh and moderated by Director of Climate Repair Quico Toro, explored the technological breakthroughs, entrenched regulatory and socioeconomic barriers, and how cheaper energy might solve some of the greatest issues the world faces today.
Panelists discussed what will be required to bring down energy costs by a full order of magnitude within a reasonable timeframe, focusing on four pillars: efficiency, reliability, scalability, and the capacity to innovate. As fossil fuel resources dwindle, Slaybaugh argued, it will begin to look less competitive, in contrast to fission’s high fuel density in conjunction with fusion, geothermal, wind, and solar technologies as leading candidates for this transformation. Furthermore, fission has proven to be scalable, and manufacturing could push its scalability even further.
Forsley, drawing on his NASA experience, noted that fossil fuels cannot be burned in the vacuum of space and orbital energy sources must have reliable, enduring lifespans of at least five to 10 years. Solving these problems, he suggested, could translate to making energy more reliable and efficient on Earth. However, he called upon the need to build the requisite infrastructure for new fabrication and the workforce needed to design, develop, and construct these new technologies.
Page looked to other industries for proof that the ambition of ten times cheaper energy is not merely theoretical, pointing to solar energy's hundredfold cost reduction over the past four decades. Fission technology, he posited, could have already been eleven times cheaper had it been allowed to evolve and develop like other technologies.
What's Holding Progress Back
Among the primary arguments against nuclear power is its cost, as construction and permitting budgets for nuclear power plants have ballooned over the years, while other industries — like solar — have seen a downward trajectory in cost as technologies have become more efficient and manufacturing techniques improved. The blame, Page argued, lies primarily with regulatory bodies kneecapping efforts to iterate on designs, causing nuclear technology to stagnate. However, Slaybaugh added that regulation was not the sole culprit. In the 1970s, the combination of high interest rates and non-standardized construction drove nuclear costs to prohibitive levels. For decades afterward, abundant cheap natural gas and flat electricity demand removed any real economic incentive to pursue alternatives. Only the recent surge in electricity load growth has begun to shift the regulatory calculus.
Forsley also criticized the role of utilities in states like Utah and Florida, where utility companies charge solar-generating customers regardless of whether they consume any of the power they produce — a structural disincentive that effectively shields existing revenue models from competition.
The panel zeroed in on the importance of infrastructure and how streamlined manufacturing is imperative to bringing down costs, as the current American nuclear fleet have all been bespoke, novel designs, resulting in build unpredictability and cost overruns. Page envisioned a virtuous cycle in which cheaper energy reduces the cost of the automation and equipment used to build energy systems, accelerating further cost reductions. Slaybaugh emphasized that manufacturability must be designed in from the start, not retrofitted as an afterthought.
Forsley offered a measured counterpoint, warning that automation alone will not be sufficient without a robust pipeline of skilled people capable of designing and maintaining these systems, making investment in STEM education an indispensable part of the equation.
Furthermore, new reactor technologies with smaller, more deployable form factors could enable grid decentralization, bringing electricity to regions traditionally beyond the grid’s reach. Bringing power closer to its destination also improves efficiency, reducing the amount of energy lost through transmission lines.
Should cheap energy become a reality, the panelists painted a picture of profound global transformation. For the billions of people in communities without reliable electricity access, radically cheaper power would mean reliable refrigeration for food and medicine, cleaner cooking, and a meaningful pathway out of poverty. Page went further, arguing that because the vast majority of post-World War II conflicts have been fought over oil access, making synthetic fuels cheaper through nuclear energy could eliminate one of the most persistent drivers of geopolitical violence.
On the industrial side, energy-intensive processes like ore processing and desalination would become far more viable. And for the climate, cheaper energy is not a luxury but the foundation upon which solutions like direct air capture and synthetic fuel production depend.
Beyond Nuclear: Geothermal and Natural Systems
The discussion closed with a consideration of pathways other than nuclear energy to make cleaner, cheaper energy a reality. The panel agreed that geothermal energy is particularly ripe for reinvention, with future generations of technology capable of accessing the Earth's constantly renewing heat at dramatically lower cost. Forsley noted that existing drilling technology developed for fracking could be repurposed to tap both a sink and source within the Earth, finding stable temperatures about five meters down and heat around a quarter mile down.
Page broadened the frame further, making a case for treating natural ecosystems as active infrastructure. By reducing farmland and phasing out biofuel crops, he argued, the oceans and forests could return to their former productivity — functioning as a planetary thermostat that works alongside technological solutions to stabilize the climate.
The conversation left little doubt that making energy ten times cheaper is not a single engineering problem but a challenge woven through regulation, economics, manufacturing, geopolitics, and ecology and meeting it will require cross-disciplinary ambition.
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