Internet search titan Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is apparently closing in on its goal to produce renewable energy at a price point cheaper than coal. In an interview with Reuters Tuesday, Google's green energy czar, Bill Weihl, said that the odds of success have improved during the past year, and predicted, "In three years, we could have multiple megawatts of plants out there."
After announcing in late 2007 its quest for "green" energy, the company's Google.org division began investing in solar thermal, geothermal, and wind technologies. The tech firm's keen interest in alternative energy sources was a contributing factor last year when President Obama named Google CEO Eric Schmidt as one of his advisers.
"We are looking at ways of cheaply getting to much higher temperatures and also making the heliostats, the fields of mirrors that have to track the sun, reflect the sun, keep it focused on the target we are trying to heat up -- make those much, much cheaper. And I think we've made some really interesting progress in the last six to nine months," reported Weihl.
Of course, green energy isn't the only thing on Google's mind. The company is also facing fresh competition in the form of Bing, the new search engine from rival Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT). However, Schmidt dismissed the so-called "decision engine" in a discussion with Liz Claman of Fox Business News. "We think search is really about comprehensiveness, freshness, scale and size of what we do. And it's difficult for them to copy that," said the CEO.
ComScore reported yesterday that Bing helped boost Microsoft's share of the online search market from 9.1% to 11.1% in its first week. As a result, Google investors seem less complacent than Schmidt, as the stock endures its third consecutive session of losses. In fact, many traders appear to be speculating on a short-term plunge -- in the June series of options, the most popular strike is the deep out-of-the-money 390 put, with 14,121 contracts in residence.
Elizabeth Harrow is an analyst and financial writer in the research department at Schaeffer's Investment Research. She is featured in the video series Schaeffer's Daily Q&A on SchaeffersResearch.com.
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