“The FERC, the agency with oversight of the U.S. power grid, signed an order on Thursday that grants Google Energy market-based rate authorization,” Lombardi reports.
“The order specifically grants Google Energy–a subsidiary of Google–the rights ‘for the sale of energy, capacity, and ancillary services at market-based rates’ while acknowledging that neither Google Energy nor its affiliates ‘own or control any generation or transmission’ facilities,” Lombardi reports. “Google has expressed a desire for access to larger amounts of renewable energy to help produce the electricity it consumes as part of its vast search-engine empire. Google has long maintained that its goal is to become a carbon-neutral company. As a side note, it’s not unusual for large companies to be granted the authority to trade in the wholesale electricity market for the purpose of managing their own energy costs.”
Lombardi reports, “But it seems that Google may actually enter the energy business. The search giant formed the Delaware-based subsidiary called Google Energy in December and when asked about it, hinted at a future in energy… In the lead-up to the recent Copenhagen summit on climate change, Google hosted its own energy conference in November that included leading energy experts and the U.S. undersecretary of energy.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “HMCIV” for the heads up.]