Why has innovation in the energy sector been so much slower than it has been in some other areas?

To answer this question, Alan Murray of The Wall Street Journal sat down with three of the most-prominent innovators of our generation: robotics expert Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway; Elon Musk, co-founder of PayPal and founder of Tesla Motors Inc., the electric-car company; and J. Craig Venter, decoder or the human genome and now an entrepreneur trying to create organisms that will secrete fuel.

Here are edited excerpts of their discussion.

Meeting Needs

MR. MURRAY: What will it take to accelerate innovation in energy?

MR. MUSK: I don't think we necessarily need to see huge improvements in efficiency. But the way in which we consume and produce energy needs to be sustainable. I think we're going to generate most electricity with solar power.