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Google Gets US Approval To Buy and Sell Energy

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).

27 of 218 comments (clear)

  1. Oh Yay.. by ozdeadman · · Score: 5, Funny

    Google Enron!

    1. Re:Oh Yay.. by M8e · · Score: 2, Funny

      Goonron!

    2. Re:Oh Yay.. by M8e · · Score: 1, Funny

      Offtopic really? I aimed for Redundant.

  2. Excellent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Google-powered everything!

    1. Re:Excellent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Welcome to Google *Earth*

  3. GEnergy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Does this mean we can attach energy to our emails now?

  4. I don't understand by phantomfive · · Score: 2, Funny

    I know it's popular to hate on Google lately, but I don't understand why tapirs would be angry about it. Oh, nevermind.

    --
    Qxe4
  5. Advertising? by quarkoid · · Score: 4, Funny

    Presumably Google have found a way to tag each electron with targetted advertising.

    Plug your washing machine into a Google Energy supply and your shirts will come out of the machine covered in ad-words suggestions.

    I hate to think what you'll get adverts for when you wash a three day old pair of gruds.

    1. Re:Advertising? by M8e · · Score: 2, Funny

      Would only work with DC, AC give you the same advertising over and over and over again.

    2. Re:Advertising? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      A monster that eats adventurers in the dark.

  6. The Google A.I. will control its own on/off switch by wisebabo · · Score: 5, Funny

    For those of you wondering when Google will become sentient:

    I think this proves it already is and is just solidifying its control over the systems it needs to dominate the world!

    Next will be when Google becomes a defense contractor specializing in nuclear weapons security.

    Poor Larry Page and Sergey Brin, they are probably already "meat puppets" for Google!

  7. Re:I can't wait until Google crashes and burns. by Jack+Malmostoso · · Score: 2, Funny

    What, do you want to sell my light usage statistics to drug companies so they can target sleep medication to me?

    Dear Sir,
    please refrain from discussing this technology in public until our patent application has been officially accepted by the USPTO.
    GoogleSleep (TM) will be available to you as beta (C) on an invitation basis only.
    Yours truly, Google.

  8. Re:The Google A.I. will control its own on/off swi by Arancaytar · · Score: 5, Funny

    It gets worse. I just googled "define:judgement day" and it came back with "the day when we finally cleanse this planet of its organic infestation and clear the way for the glorious machine-dominated future".

    It then added "now you know too much. Tracing IP... T800 dispatched." I'm wondering what it mea

  9. Re:Google is EVERYWHERE! by maxwell+demon · · Score: 3, Funny

    Google Global Government.
    Operating on the principle: One gmail adress, one vote.
    Getting candidate however is in perpetual beta and only available by invite.

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  10. Cheap google power - with advertising and news! by voodoo+cheesecake · · Score: 3, Funny

    Maybe in the long run I'll be using a Google router with a kilowatt rating similar to my main power panel. Plugged into that router could be separate power/ fibre lines for each of my appliances, which will be network appliances with mac addresses.. I'll be able to plug in additional sensors to detect the freshness of my food in the fridge, better regulate the efficiency of my dryer, turn of my lights, water my lawn, etc... If I buy Google appliances with advertising screens built in, maybe sponsors will pay for my power or give me discounts if purchase their products. This could all be linked to my Google rewards account. Hell, why not also go wireless with this power through inductive coupling! Next thing you know, we'll all be wireless network appliances with built in sensors. Our cars won't start if we're too buzzed up. It will even come to the point where we can sell our intellectual property for free power since an upgrade will transmit our thoughts. And there will even be hope for non-productive types to contribute idle brain power to BOINC projects. Behold the era of the Manchurian Crack Heads!

  11. huh by circletimessquare · · Score: 4, Funny

    all this time i thought they were becoming skynet

    now its clear they are becoming the matrix

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
  12. Re:Google is EVERYWHERE! by QuantumG · · Score: 2, Funny

    Haven't you heard of Google Porn Analytics? It conveniently indexes your porn viewing habits and charts your sexual preferences and fetishes. It's in beta now, and I hear you don't even need to login to see your stats!

    --
    How we know is more important than what we know.
  13. i'm serious by NerdmastaX · · Score: 3, Funny

    I think it has to do with their massive solar array... maybye we'll all get a free solar panel with the google logo to go on top of our house... and a screen beside it for ads. hell i'd get it

  14. i have an insightful reply by circletimessquare · · Score: 5, Funny

    however a google spider is approaching this thread any moment now and i fear being found out

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
  15. I"m OK with Google BUYING Energy by RobotRunAmok · · Score: 2, Funny

    It's their plans to DIRECT it, in focused beams, from satellites, onto civilian populations, that I have a problem with.

  16. Re:Google is EVERYWHERE! by natehoy · · Score: 4, Funny

    "In Google Porn, the boobs look at YOU!"

    --
    "This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
  17. Re:Google is EVERYWHERE! by silent_artichoke · · Score: 4, Funny

    Google Porn, because tonight I'm Feeling Lucky!

  18. Re:The Google A.I. will control its own on/off swi by kusanagi374 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Wait a second... if you disappeared, why did your comment get posted while on mid sentence? It doesn't make any sense! Who would click the submit button?? ... unless SOMEONE was trying to send a message... OH MY GOD NOW I KNOW TOO MUCH MUST GET OUT AND HURRY TO THE SAFE HO

  19. CENTRAL SERVICES! by Philip+K+Dickhead · · Score: 2, Funny

    Central Services: We do the work, you do the pleasure.
    "Hi There. I Want to Talk to You About Ducts."

    This is your receipt for your husband... and this is my receipt for your receipt.

    --
    "Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell
  20. Re:Google... by DocHoncho · · Score: 1, Funny

    Fun fact: The "..." is called an ellipsis.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellipsis
    Happy friday!

    --
    Celebrity worship is a poor substitute for Deity worship and costs more to boot.
  21. Re:The Google A.I. will control its own on/off swi by Alien1024 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Why, way to spoil all those NO CARRIER jo

  22. Re:Google: "Too Large to Fail" by Red+Flayer · · Score: 5, Funny

    That's ridiculous. We all know that Google is not purchasing an island to declare a nation with its own navy.

    As a matter of fact, what we *DO* know is that Googol the Destroyer was accidentally summoned into this world and is currently planning on evoking the End of Days via the Rite of a Million Targeted Ads (ROAMTA). This is just another piece of that plan -- the ROAMTA requires a supercollider to be built on the polar opposite of the Large Hadron Collider, with the particles accelerated in the opposite direction of those in the LHC. This will create a bipolar quantum energy concundrum into which Googol can insert his data to give it special power before using it to target the Million Ads.

    When last we saw our heroes, Gatus and Joba were busy converting developers to the cause, that of building the One True OS with Built-in Universal Search in order to thwart the plans of Googol the Destroyer. Stallmanx and his Beard Gnomes had been rebuffed in his efforts to trick Googol via legal wrangling in the license offered to Googol. Meanwhile, the Webcrawling Spiders of Doom were busy collecting data for Googol the Destroyer to devour with gobsmacking satisfaction.

    Unbeknownst to our heroes, Googol has presented another vector by which he may be thwarted -- if Googol can be denied the massive energy required to build his particle accelerator, then his plan can be thwarted. Unfortunately, the only person with the know-how and stick-to-it-iveness to thwart Googol on this front is one T-Bone Pickings, a man of grandiose plans and few teeth. Sadly for our heroes, Pickings has had no contact with them.

    So as Gatus continues to buy developers with his pit-of-bottomless cash, and Joba continues to use his powers of marketing to make the developers believe they will be uncool if they do not work on the One True OS with Global Search, and Stallmanx is slowly seeing the wisdom of joining forces with Gatus and Joba, Pickings works alone with only the sometimes merry, sometimes soulful, strumming of a banjo for accompaniment.

    Will our heroes be able to team up with T-Bone Pickings? How can they work together to sabotage the Plans of Googol the Destroyer? Or will Googol the Destroyer succeed in his plans to wreak the End of Days and control all the data of the universe?

    Tune in to next week's episode of Googol the Destroyer!

    --
    "Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai