Last year Google filed for a patent for a "floating data center" that would use wave motion to generate electricity to power on board computers. It would also use ocean water to cool the computers. Submitted in February last year, it was just spotted by Slashdot this past Saturday in the U.S. Patent and Trademark office's electronic filings.
Google engineers imagine their self powered data centers floating anywhere from three to seven miles off the coast and operating completely off the grid. The center would be powered by machines developed by British company Pelamis Wave Power that consist of pumps suspended in the water by pontoons. The engineers calculated that 30 megawatts of electricity, enough to power one center, could be generated by an array of pontoons spread across a square kilometer. Pelamis already has a
