Google launches Google Energy, hoping to bring more green energy to its datacenters
By Tim Stevens 
posted January 9th 2010 9:16AM
posted January 9th 2010 9:16AM
Of all the truly monumental advancements to human civilization that Google has provided for this great world, like enabling cached offline access to Gmail in Android devices, the company has done some nasty stuff too. Its worst offense (that we know about) is surely the massive drain on the nation's energy resources its data centers pull, but it's working to put things right, most recently with last month's formation of Google Energy, a spin-off that, Google hopes, will allow the company to more actively participate in national energy markets, purchasing more from renewables and thus funding greater innovation in that space. Sounds nice, but we think it's just a cover; the Googs will surely be releasing a contract-free personal power generator called the Deckard One in roughly 18 months, undermining the entrenched utility companies and freeing us all from costly early disconnection fees. Whether or not those generators will support multitouch, however, remains to be seen.
[Thanks, Amanda; image courtesy of How To Draw]
I could honestly see someone griping that their generator doesn't support multitouch, LMAO.
But this is nice. Google is once again...one step to world domination via Skynet (or would it be Goognet)
@iDavey Google is definitely starting to show its true colours.. Compared to Google, Apple and Microsoft are kind, cute kittens..
@(Unverified)
I still don't think they're that bad. Google is just trying to put their fingers into everything. There's never anything wrong with that.
Now when they use that dipping as a leverage to control people's habits (read: Microsoft and Apple) then I'd start to worry.
@iDavey - No kidding- there are a whole lot of people who feel really strongly about pinch-to-zoom
@Conquistador
customer: "So I understand this generator will cut down power consumption by 98%. Hmm, nice. So the OS to control it is Android right?
installer: "Yes ma'am. Android is installed. Very easy to operate. Although this US model does not support pinch-to-zoom, you can..."
customer: "Wait...it doesn't have multitouch?"
installer: "No ma'am, it has multitouch. Just not pinch-to-zoom"
customer: "Oh...well if it doesn't have multitouch, I'm perfectly fine with my old generator"
installer: "Ma'am, you know your generator uses has a power consumption rate that is 120% higher than this one?"
customer: "Yes I do...but if this doesn't have multitouch, it's just not functional. So you can take it back"
@(Unverified) It is quite obvious what Google is trying to do. ( We all had that hunch since forever, didn't we? ) But the question remains whether the 'Google totally controls our lives in every aspect' is a good thing or bad. The only reason we think of it as bad is because we don't like the idea of any one entity becomes way stronger than others. But the fact remains that the rise of Google from a small company to a giant against all the corporations shows that they are doing things better ( the way consumers like). Google has not only proved that it has better services, but also great business acumen. Linux ( Despite the fact that it's better for customers from a monetary point of view and at least good as Windows from a technical point of view, and of course best suited to developers) could never replace Windows, because the developers and the companies associated with Linux could not sell the idea to the consumers( The average PC user who are the majority). On the other hand Microsoft raked profits by throwing money on advertising, bullying vendors, etc. to remain on top. Maybe it is a message for all the corporations and more importantly the principles of capitalism ( that maximum profit is the goal of every business) to rethink(evolve?) their fundamentals and start working from scratch. Competition(with just profit in mind for the corporations ) does not always guarantee the best for the consumers. The interest of the consumers( short term and long term ) is as important for a corporation as the need to profit. In fact, to be more precise, the profits of corporations are closely linked to the benefit of the consumer unlike the earlier thinking of the consumer getting the best as a BY-PRODUCT of companies trying to profit.
@iDavey But will it monitor and record what devices I connect to it? I wouldn't be surprised if they gave it wifi to talk to their servers so they can monitor what devices we're using. Then they may "accidentally" sell it to market researchers.
@MJGAMER 1991 XBL
google can probably close shop the first time they sell any private information. So you have to ask yourself how much money do you think market researchers have? Cause it would have to be more than all the advertising in the world...
All renewable sources available in Europe will be multitouch enabled...in the U.S. .. not so much
@breeman
Of course the generators will have the API's for multitouch. You'll just have to get third party apps to use it.
You'll be able to pinch-to-zoom settings by downloading the Whale browser from the Market.
In europe you can hug a tree, in the US you can only pet it,
@breeman
Well, that's just the outcome of only 120V in the US. In EU, 230V RULEZ, BABY!
@loocas
US has both 110V and 220V power.
yay, they want all the electricity grid can provide for their computers! Humans will have to switch to generators!
US android device doesn't have multitouch because he doesn't like it. :(
It'll obviously be based on Steorn
it is first offense
it's = it is
its = possessive
@Dr Spaceman Typo, thanks, fixed.
@TimStevens
sweet
sweet
@Dr Spaceman
you got a 'thank you'.. next time you're getting a wedgie.
I, for one, welcome our new benevolent overlords.
Haha, nice Blade Runner reference...yeah Engadget, we get that you know where the name for the Nexus One comes from ; )
@martynmcfarquhar
They should be careful...
They might get sued for writing that down.
Not a bad name though, Deckard One, sounds robust.
Google Energy
Google Sun
Google Water
Google Arms
Google War
Google'S Earth
@TareG
You forgot Google Air
Every breath would be filled with subliminal ads via AdMob but it will only be targeted to the specific foods left over in your mouth...pointing you to a restaurant when you search on your Google Maps.
@iDavey
And there you would search for Google Food
@TareG
10 years from now ,
Alien1: hey look , that's the planet earth !
Alien2: what's that ? you mean Google Earth ?
@TareG
I'm actually pretty convinced that we will rename Earth to Google, that way all our products come from the Ear.. I mean Google.
I think the energy we would have spent looking for the information we get on google more than makes up for it.
Google sure seems to be tapping into a lot of things lately. Won't be long before there's a Google Earth...Oh wait...
This has nothing to do with Google wanting "green" energy for their data centers, it's about them being able make money buying and selling energy. If they wanted "green" energy for their data centers they could simply build solar and wind farms to power them. Plus, they'll most likely get a tax credit for doing it.
@(Unverified) I concur. Everything about Google has and endgame for money. Google is not a benevolent entity trying to improve everyone's lives. They are a for-profit, publicly traded company that has to satisfy it's shareholders.
I use Google products as much if not more than your average person, but I realize it comes with a trade-off. The stuff isn't free, it isn't magic. I am not the type that thinks all corporations are money hungry machines, there are a few (very few) that truly exist just to make the world a better place. The thing is, they are never publicly traded and they rarely make a profit.
@RandomGuy "Everything about Google has and endgame for money."
I have no problem with this and don't see it as mutually exclusive to an entity being benevolent.
Their philosophy thus far has been that doing good things for profit is a win-win. Therefore they will keep doing good things and I for onw hope they keep making a profit..
@(Unverified)
As the last poster said...
Doing good and making a profit are NOT mutually exclusive. As long as they are making a profit, they can afford to do what they feel like. Apple was making enough money that it decided it could afford to quite using toxic substances in their computers, and instead using recyclable stuff. Those out to make money often have the most clear view of what is really practical. A non profit out to do good often carries on unsustainable practices that die when they run out of money. I have a feeling Google's initiatives will carry on.
@RandomGuy Hope Google doesn't have to see the day but I often wonder if their general "do-good" business practices would be the same if they weren't pulling in the kind of dough that they are right now. "Desperate times call for desperate measures" and shareholder pressure to make money hasn't quite hit Google yet (and I really hope it doesn't in the future either) but that's when you will really know whether do-good attitude can ever take the back-seat at Mountain View.
Overall I am a Google fan!
"Deckard?" Is Google just trying to punch the memory of Philip K. Dick in the face? Or get sued to eternity by his heirs?
@JonSF
Whoosh
Why is it such a great offense that Google pulls a ton of power to run services which we all use and rely on every day? If anything, it should be less offensive that it's all centered in one location to increase efficiency, instead of the result if we all used Hotmail for email, Yahoo for search, Dailymotion for video, etc. etc.
If anyone has a right to pull tons of power to run a data center, they do.
Now when they start selling ME power, I'll get a little worried...
"You have 2 kWh left of your 50 kWh maximum, but we're increasing maximums all the time!"
"Join the new Google Energy Pro beta!"
@Dreamscape86 It's not a 'great offence' but you can calculate the average carbon emissions resulting from a web search (based on datacentre power consumption and number of searches). Some people have done so - I suspect completely inaccurately, but still - and it's currently rather high for something that, intuituvely, people would expect to be 'free' in all senses.
If Google can reduce their carbon emissions by investing in clean energy and using it (actually or theoretically) to power their data centres then that's good business sense - they can make money from the investments, and reducing their carbon footprint also has a PR benefit both in a positive sense (look at us, we're doing something good) and also in a negative sense. There have been a few muted attacks on Google - and other internet companies, but obviously Google is biggest - for energy use already, and it's something competitors could potentially use against them in advertising, if competitors got there first. In the longer term there's also the possibility of government regulation, for example increased taxation on dirty energy.
They may have decided to use investment rather than directly building renewable energy sources because if these are existing datacentres, it's unlikely they are situated in a great place to (say) put up a few wind turbines; investing in grid renewable energy from elsewhere might be more efficient. (Having local renewable energy is a benefit too, though, because it provides an additional source of redundancy if the grid goes down, although you can't rely on the wind to be blowing / sun to be out at that point, so backup generators wouldn't go away either...)
@Unverified User
in terms of energy efficiency I think google blogged that searches use less energy in the data center than your computer on which you are reading the results so it's not that bad. And it sure beats driving to a library or buying a newspaper in terms of energy.
But yeah, when you add up all The searches by billions of people, electricity bill is certainly on a different scale than the average household bill.
I'm waiting for Google to release a universal currency.
GREEN energy? WTF is GREEN energy? Is that like a GREEN job? Are you sick of this GREEN crap already? I've been for as long as I have known it to be a HOAX.