Google's Wave Powered Data Centres  

CNet's GreenTech blog is speculating that Google may be thinking about build floating data centre's one day - Google files patent for wave-powered floating data center. Fans of Neal Stephenson's book Cryptonomicon will no doubt recognise the potential for the creation of offshore data havens - or perhaps more than just data.

Google sees the future of computing at sea.

The search giant has filed a patent for a "floating data center" that uses wave motion to power on-board computers and the ocean's water to cool them.

The patent was submitted in February last year but was spotted in the U.S. Patent & Trademark office's electronic filings and posted at Slashdot on Saturday.

The system Google engineers sketch out is a self-powered data center placed three to seven miles offshore, potentially operating off the grid. Standard shipping containers would house racks of computers that could be transported by truck and placed onto a boat by crane.

A wave-power generator would be the primary source of electricity. But wind turbines could be used to, for example, run water pumps and a tidal power generator could be used in rivers.

The patent specifies the use of a so-called Pelamis machine, which uses pontoons with pumps to convert wave motion into electricity. A British company, Pelamis Wave Power, is operating a prototype in Scotland and intends to install one off Portugal.

Google engineers calculate that an array of pontoons spread over a square kilometer (a bit more than a half mile) could produce 30 megawatts of electricity, enough to operate a single system.

Also envisioned is equipment to use the direct current electricity to run DC-capable computers, which some people consider more energy-efficient than using alternating current.