Rich Miller: How Google Energy Might Green Its Data Centers

There’s been lots of speculation about Google Energy, a new subsidiary the Internet giant has formed to buy and sell power on the wholesale market. At the Earth2Tech Green.Net event today, Google energy czar Bill Weihl said most of the speculation is overblown, joking that the company had no plans to emulate Enron as an energy trading power broker.

But Weihl laid out a scenario in which Google Energy might help the company access renewable energy to support its huge data centers.

“Supposing we had a facility scomewhere in the Midwest and have power contracts,” Weihl said, noting that Google typically signs multi-year utility contracts. “Let’s say there’s a developer who wants to build a wind farm on land nearby. We’d love to buy the power from that wind farm.”

More of the Data Center Knowledge article from Rich Miller

Alex Carroll

Managing Member at Lifeline Data Centers

Alex, co-owner, is responsible for all real estate, construction and mission critical facilities: hardened buildings, power systems, cooling systems, fire suppression, and environmentals. Alex also manages relationships with the telecommunications providers and has an extensive background in IT infrastructure support, database administration and software design and development. Alex architected Lifeline’s proprietary GRCA system and is hands-on every day in the data center.