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Friday Feb 19:Google Gets US Approval To Buy and Sell Energy
Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 3:31 pm
by vernes
Slashdot:Google Gets US Approval To Buy and Sell 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."
Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 4:06 pm
by MSimon
This may just be an entry into the carbon trading market.
Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 11:39 pm
by Tom Ligon
Sounds rather Enronish to me. My mother had tens of thousands of dollars worth of it back in the day. By the time I inherited my 1/3 share I think the value was about $1,67 for the whole pile of paper. Since then it has been de-listed and valued to zero.
One of my contacts says one of his contacts at Google was genuinely interested in powering their facilities with fusion, not much of a surprise considering Google's role in giving Doc a bully pulpit to describe his project.
Posted: Sun Feb 21, 2010 3:34 pm
by doug l
Hmmmm. Buying and Selling? Too bad. I'd had hopes that they'd be into producing and selling. Now that would be interesting. I recall some allusion to their foundation, which incidentally was NOT a 501-c non-profit kind of organization, being involved with funding alternate energy startups whose intentions were to make a marketable product and a profit. Wasn't that one of the connections that brough Bussard to Google in the first place?
Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2010 4:01 am
by 2edfe9
I have one possible explanation for why Google wants to sell energy. I just watched a CBS report on a fuel cell company called Bloom. According to the report, Google has been testing their fuel cells on site for a while now.
http://www.bloomenergy.com/news/
Let’s say Bloom can do what it claims and sell a fuel cell that produces power cheaper than the grid (after you factor in all of the government clean energy subsidies available). Google may have a contract to buy the first n fuel cells off the production line. If they could sell the excess power during not peak-load periods, they could run the fuel cells at full power and make a profit with the excess energy, thus paying off the initial purchase cost of the fuel cells more quickly.
Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2010 4:13 am
by 2edfe9