Google find themselves with a finger in yet another pie – cue Google Energy
Posted by Lauren Potgieter on 22 Feb 2010 | Tagged as: Uncategorized
Surprise surprise – Google have entered yet another sector that have no relation to their services in order to offer their customers an alternative to buying their electricity from another source and they have called this Google Energy. Those of us who follow Google’s ventures will see that they are consistently involving themselves in every industry possible. Unless you have been hiding under a rock for the past few weeks, you will have heard of Google Buzz. This social networking site hopes to follow the success of Twitter and Facebook and even though many do not feel comfortable with veering away from their usual social networking sites, it is certain that Google Buzz will acquire a following. Google Buzz has been highly publicized due to its nature, but there are many other ventures that Google are involved in that the masses will not even hear of. Google Energy is one of them.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has passed an order that’s lets Google sell and buy electricity – enter Google Energy. Some of us who have recently discovered this news are beginning to wonder how it will affect us. Will we be buying electricity from Google instead of our own electricity companies?
The answer to this question is no. Well, no for now. According to Google, their new energy initiative has been established in order to have widespread control over their numerous data centres and by doing this, Google Energy hope to achieve carbon neutrality. Google Energy, a subsidiary of Google, will be able to buy and sell their own energy and their official spokesperson has claimed that this energy will all be renewable in Google’s efforts to move towards a greener energy solution. Google have made it clear that they wish to become more carbon neutral seeing as they consume a vast amount of energy within their empire and want to obtain more green credits, so to say.
If this seems strange to you, it must be mentioned that this is not the first time that a large company has been given the right to buy and sell their own electricity. Extremely large companies have in the past been granted the right to get involved in the wholesale electricity market. Google have had a keen interest on the energy market for a while and if you ask me, this is the best way in for them.
In addition to bettering their own electricity efficiency costs, Google Energy will be allowed to sell electricity to the public, but if this is a part of Google’s big plans, they have yet to say. A spokesperson for the giant says that this is not their immediate plan but could be a possibility in the future. And knowing Google, this possibility will definitely be an opportunity that they will not miss out on. Who knows, soon we could be using the Google search engine on our own PC, which is ironically powered by Google. Exiting or just a little bit scary?
