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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).
All the power to you!
You're working on fiber to the home.
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
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 ...
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
Even with DC, at the time the ads would reach you, they would already be outdated.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.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
IMO this is just yet one more example of Google (regardless of your thoughts of the company as a whole) is making an intelligent business decision. Buying and selling energy will be yet one more reason for people to go with Google as their main provider. Since Comcast and Verizon have started offering all in one packages (TV, Phone, Internet), why wouldn't Google do the same, imagine getting everything on one bill, Google Phone, Water, Electricity, Internet, and TV? While I enjoy the flexibility to choose different providers for different services, it seems that this might make a good target for large corporations...has kind of an ominous ring to it...Is Google Earth starting to sound creepy to anyone else?
I know Google is a big company and some people think they are trying to take over the world but I don't see how them trying to get better electricity rates for their datacenters is Slashdot worthy. Any idea that Google is going to get into the electricity business is patently absurd.
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".
Developing a fast cheap smart grid seems more of google's biz than actual energy production. I'm sure the have experience with their heft energy usage. Perhaps it is part of getting into that business? Likely google is just doing energy for themselves and keeping more doors open because ... that's simply being prudent.
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 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.
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.
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?
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).
"To stop the terrorists."
Power has a strong tendency to corrupt, regardless of one's tag line.
damaged by dogma
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).
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.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel