Google Gets US Approval To Buy and Sell Energy

Very true. This is probably just so they can negotiate for cheaper power for their datacenters, and sell excess power if they build their own plants.

Here's to hoping they can cut through the nuclear red tape and build a LFTR reactor. If they can get one of those off the ground and powering one of their datacenters, it would prove to the world that nuclear power shouldn't have the stigma it does.

I thought it was so they could better buy energy from renewable resources. They've always put datacenters in locations with excess electrical capacity, but this makes it possible for them to offset their potentially dirty (coal) electricity usage with cleaner energy elsewhere.

IIRC, they didn't build that dam, they simply built a data center near it. It was near the dalles in oregon, if that's the one you're talking about. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/14/technology/14search.html

I don't believe they want to start building power plants. I believe they want to be able to buy energy wholesale to lower their energy costs by buying power directly and avoiding middleman markup.

It certainly has to do with their data centers. It is not unusual for a company to take over handling one of their dependencies to reduce risk and cost. If they do it as good or better than others already established in that market, then the smarter companies will turn around and convert that into a revenue generating business which on the surface does not appear connected with their original core business.

Amazon did exactly that with cloud storage and EC2. The difference is that unlike the energy industry which is regulated they did not need to get the gov't's permission.

Similarly, its just a matter of time before Apple starts selling on the open market the processor chip they developed exclusively for the IPad.

Next, we see if they actually do something with it.

Enron.

23andme -- Google Genemods.

Next they buy walmart, and after that... the US govt. Such that google will control our power, data infrastructure, commercial goods, and govt!

Google will ultimately build a self-sustained ad distribution platform. ;-) Let's imagine, company which will not depend on any other company.

Maybe one day they will buy some small country and became even independent from U.S. government.

California's 'Pacific Gas and Electric' becomes 'Pacific Google and Electric'