🚀 go-pugleaf

Now we know more about why Google wants to know your home's
minute-by-minute power usage in real time...

http://www.google.org/powermeter/

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Google Applies to Become Power Marketer

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/07/google-applies-to-become-power-marketer/

January 7, 2010, 8:23 pm
Google Applies to Become Power Marketer
By MIGUEL HELFT

Google is stepping up its forays into the energy world.

The Internet search company, which consumes vast amounts of electricity
to run the computers in its data centers, created a subsidiary last
month called Google Energy. It then applied for approval from the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to be allowed to buy and sell power
much like utilities do.

Google said it did not have specific plans to become an energy trader
and that its primary goal was to gain flexibility for buying more
renewable energy for its power-hungry data centers.

�We want to have the ability to procure renewable energy to offset power
usage of our operations,� said Niki Fenwick, a Google spokeswoman. Ms.
Fenwick said that having access to more renewable energy could help the
company fulfill its goal to become �carbon neutral.�

This is hardly Google�s first foray into the energy world. Over the
years, Google has invested in renewable energy projects through its
philanthropic and venture capital units. It has also embarked on a
number of engineering projects and partnerships to, for example, advance
plug-in hybrids and offer tools to measure home electricity usage. And
it has an ambitious goal to help develop renewable energy that is
cheaper than coal. Bill Weihl, Google�s green energy czar, discussed
many of those initiatives and goals in a lengthy interview with The New
York Times published on Thursday.

If Google�s application is granted, the company would be able to sell
any surplus power that results from these or other initiatives.