Google to Build Water-Based Facility

By  Anastasia Tubanos, theWHIR.com

September 8, 2008 — (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — According to several reports on Monday, search engine giant Google (google.com) has filed a patent for what the company calls a “water-based data center,” which will use waves from the ocean to provide power and cooling to portable facilities.

In its patent, Google writes that its “computing centers are located on a ship or ships, which are then anchored in a water body from which energy from natural motion of the water may be captured, and turned into electricity and/or pumping power for cooling pumps to carry heat away from computers in the data center.”

The patent says the floating data centers will be located three to seven miles off-shore, in 50 to 70 meters of water, and make use of Pelamis Wave Energy Converter (pelamiswave.com) units that turn ocean surface waves into electricity and can be combined to form “wave farms.” (more…)

Tags: data center, Google, patent, renewable energy