Already a significant investor in renewables companies, Google is seeking permission to buy and sell energy like a large utility.
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The US internet search and advertising giant has filed an application with regulators to become a wholesale electricity power marketer, with the aim of accessing more renewable energy and thereby saving money.
Google’s search engine and vast array of web services run on a network of power-hungry server computers packed into huge warehouses, known as data centres.
The company does not disclose the size of its energy bill, but publicly available information provides a sense of the scale.
Touting the efficiency of its data centres, it said last January that an average internet search consumes 0.0003 kilowatt hours of energy.
In November, 9.479 billion searches were performed using Google in the US, according to comScore, which tracks the internet-search market.
That suggests a month of US internet searches on Google consumes 2.8 gigawatt hours of energy.
A new subsidiary, Google Energy, “was formed to identify and develop opportunities to contain and manage the cost of energy for Google”, the company says in a filing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
“In addition to engaging in sales of electricity that are unregulated by the commission, [Google Energy] proposes to act as a power marketer, purchasing electricity and reselling it to wholesale customers.”
It is also seeking permission to arrange transmission and fuel supplies, “to facilitate efficient trade in the bulk power market”.
Google aims to access more renewable resources as it strives to become carbon-neutral, and intends to use green energy credits and carbon offsets.
Benjamin Romano, Seattle
Published: Friday, January 15 2010
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