The news follows Cisco's vocal displeasure last fall with a proposal by Calpine Corp. to build a power plant adjacent its 20,000-worker campus, which was approved by the San Jose City Council in October. In November, San Jose City Council members shot down the Calpine's proposed Metcalf Energy Center, saying the Coyote Valley area for which the power plant was proposed was not properly zoned for such heavy industrial uses.

"We don't have any plan to (build a power plant exclusive to the new Cisco campus)," Langdon says. "Is it something we're going to look at? Yes, but we've barely looked at it. We've barely even begun to look at it. In fact, says Langdon, "I wouldn't even call (the idea) an embryo. I would call it a sperm and an egg."

Cisco hopes to break ground this winter on the much-vaunted Coyote Valley Research Park, which has seen its own share of controversy. Just this week, a fifth lawsuit was filed against the project, this one by a group of local environmentalists collectively known as People for Livable and Affordable Neighborhoods, or PLAN. That legal challenge follows others by the cities of Salinas and Santa Cruz, as well as the associated governments of the Monterey Bay area as well as other environmental groups.

San Jose officials have been eager backers of Cisco but less willing to discuss the potential of building power plants in the area, even as Bay Area residents continue to live through Stage 3 energy alerts and critically low reserves. If it's deep within the 688-acre campus of the city's largest employer, however, the reticence might fade.