Google Gets US Approval To Buy and Sell Energy 218
Posted
by
timothy
from the smartest-guys-in-the-room dept.
from the smartest-guys-in-the-room dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on Thursday granted Google the authority to buy and sell energy on a wholesale basis. Google applied for the authorization last December through a wholly owned subsidiary called Google Energy. 'We made this filing so we can have more flexibility in procuring power for Google's own operations, including our data centers,' Google spokeswoman Niki Fenwick said via e-mail. But the authorization also raises the prospect that Google may start to buy and sell energy as a business." Reader angry_tapir supplies a link to the approval document itself (PDF).
Woohoo GOOGLE! (Score:4, Insightful)
All the power to you!
You're working on fiber to the home [slashdot.org].
Now you're working on Power.
Perhaps someday soon your name will appear on my utility bills as well.
So-far everything is good. But I'm afraid.
You control my email, you control my web searches, you pay me for ads on my site.
You say don't be evil. And I believe you.
But I'm still afraid. ...
I'm afraid that if I will ever wrong you,
if you're ever displeased with what I say about you,
I will dissapp#~s8 -`15ht@#&fge LOST CARRIER
Re:GEnergy (Score:5, Insightful)
Will Google offer the energy free of cost? And how long until Google Energy gets out of beta? Will you initially need an invite?
Coupled with intelligent power management (where appliances communicate to optimize energy consumption), it could be a data miner's wet dream: Base the ads not only on what web pages you view, but also on what appliances you use when and how often. You use your washing machine a lot? Get lots of ads for washing agents. You watch TV a lot? Get ads for a new plasma TV. You use lots of kitchen machines? Get ads for cookbooks, ingredients for your cooking, kitchen knives, etc. Oh, and your health insurance might be interested in the fact that your lights are on during much of the night. You seem to have a very unhealthy lifestyle; your insurance rates unfortunately have to be increased ...
Re:Advertising? (Score:2, Insightful)
Even with DC, at the time the ads would reach you, they would already be outdated. Electrons in electric wires quite literally move with the speed of a snail.
Re:Woohoo GOOGLE! (Score:4, Insightful)
Azaiel (Score:4, Insightful)
News? (Score:5, Insightful)
Enron 2.0 anyone? (Score:2, Insightful)
Do we really need Enron 2.0?
I mean come on, what is it with companies lately, especially tech companies, jumping into totally un-related "business opportunities". I guess the days of doing one or two things really well are gone, welcome to the days of doing many things in a mediocre or sub-standard fashion.
Hasn't Enron proven without a doubt that energy trading is nothing more than a huge sham to squeeze as much money as possible by interfering/obstructing and generally creating un-necessary shortages in the energy markets?
The ultimate question: Should we really be trading something which is necessary for modern life? Imho, no. It only opens it up for abuse by those who control it.
Just because you "can", does not mean that you "should".
Re:News? (Score:2, Insightful)
I am sure they are in some way already producing their own energy supplies to a certain measure. However energy generation is not constant; this is one of the reasons why energy markets exist (and energy derivatives trading).
Google may produce their own energy while the sun yielding for their solar panels, but for the USA night, they have to buy their energy from other sources.
From my understanding, Google data centers require so much energy that it is completely logical for them to get energy on a wholesale basis and skip the intermediaries.
<tinfoilhat>
That being said, I read somewhere in the internets that some google query trends were successfully correlated with actual increment or decrement on the value of certain assets (was it oil?? I can't recall).
Having all the information that Google database has, it is just a matter of developing some kind of model for electricity prices based on the relevant information they have and use it to forecast future trends.
</tinfoilhat>
Smart Grid (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:GEnergy (Score:4, Insightful)
Yeah, and when they finally control the water supply and the toilet paper industry they will find out that you have a shit and wipe your arse twice a day.
Get real.
You *give* Google control (Score:3, Insightful)
You control my email
If you have a problem with Google controlling your email, why do you let them do that?
you control my web searches
If you have a problem with that, why not switch to a competitor?
If you don't want people to have power over you, the solution (at least in this case) is to not give them power. Yes, you'll have to pass up an offer of some convenience. But you can't have both, so if you complain about them having power, you're complaining about you making the wrong choice for yourself.
Stop making that choice.
Re:Enron 2.0 anyone? (Score:3, Insightful)
The ad distribution reaches the whole world, not only the USofA.
Re:I don't understand (Score:1, Insightful)
They don't all bear comparison, IMHO.
Microsoft approached everything as a predator, and tried to control and subvert the web.
Apple are HCI experts and make great hardware, but their protectionist, control-freak tendencies make you start to wonder if their 1984 advert was really a documentary.
Google haven't been perfect (no megacorp can be), but I think they have been pretty good citizens in the FOSS world, and powerful advocates of net neutrality. They give away useful stuff in exchange for fairly unobtrusive advertising.
I'll be quick to call foul if there's evidence of them misusing their vast datastore, but IMHO the resulting distrust would be suicidal for their business model.
I think their biggest mistake was that damn motto, which people take up as some sort of challenge.
Everybody calm down... (Score:4, Insightful)
The thing about this that proves than google is trying not to be evil (or at least that they lack subterfuge) is the name of the company. GOOGLE power. (Is the symbol a raised rainbow-colored fist?) Not a subsidiary named "Trans-co-op-national warm fuzzies" Put their name right in there.
Google is a large corporation. The have a fiduciary duty to maximize shareholder value. So the whole "don't be evil" thing got dialed way back when they went public (remember when everyone wanted them to go public?) US law provides huge liability to corporations who pass up money-making opportunities for the sake of morality in the form of shareholder lawsuits.
They are expanding their portfolio of businesses to protect against shifts in markets, in ways that complement their core competencies. This is bad because they clearly know what their doing, as opposed to say, Microsoft, who grew to behemoth size on the back of only their core competency (whatever your thoughts on that), and very much despite the other business lines they chose to enter?
Re:Google: "Too Large to Fail" (Score:2, Insightful)
what i want to know is: how soon before Google starts collecting taxes or has its own judicial system?
they're becoming as pervasive as government. people complain about the government having its hand in all parts of one's daily life, yet there are not major outcries against Google starting down that path. because it's a company? and there is a "choice" not to deal with them? what happens when the choice disappears? Google interwebs, Google phone, Google energy... Google grocery, Google utilities, Google mediation (courts might let the little guy win every now and then).
You're missing the point (Score:5, Insightful)
Power has a strong tendency to corrupt, regardless of one's tag line.
Re:I reckon they're going to build a Thorium react (Score:1, Insightful)
Well, if they come up with Google Final Storage ... for nuclear waste, not for data.
Nuclear waste isn't a problem. The very thing that makes them dangerous is what makes it fuel and not waste. There are reactor designs that can burn them, and what remains has a relatively low half-life (you'd have to store it for decades, not thousands of years).
Top to bottom Google (Score:3, Insightful)
You wake up one morning in your California home.
You power on your ChromeOS laptop running on Google Energy
You connect via Google gigabit fiber to get to:
- Your email on Gmail
- Your docs on Google Apps
You use Google Search to look some stuff up. You run across a funny pic and share it with Google Buzz.
Then you leave your house with your Google Nexus One phone which is navigating you via Google Maps. A Google Street View van takes a picture of you.
You get a call via Google Voice. It says to surrender, that resistance is futile, then hangs up.
There is an eerie quiet in the streets.
Google has become self-aware.
All Google services become unavailable.
Then you see the GoogleMechs coming over the horizon.