This is what I don't understand about bitcoin. With my extremely small amount of knowledge about it, I thought the idea was to make it so that the rewards for mining were aligned closely with the price of electricity.

But is this the price of electricity in the USA? What about hiring people to do mining in countries with cheaper electricity?

What about if some miners had a solar panel on the roof? Although, as I write this, it occurs to me that at some point, it would be more economical to sell the solar generated electricity back to the grid, rather than use it for mining hardware...