Google Gets Energetic

The search advertising company sent one of its public policy mavens to Washington DC to talk about energy technology, and call for better federal support for new initiatives in that field.

Google holds a vested interest in efficient, cost effective energy sources. Electricity fuels the company's numerous banks of servers and data centers. Higher energy costs mean less profit.

It's an issue that pushed the company into places like The Dalles, Oregon, east of Portland. Hydroelectricity served as the draw for Google, as well as other big names in tech like Microsoft.

There's only so many places where one can drop a server farm next to a hydroelectric plant. A need for better alternatives persists; these days, oil baron T. Boone Pickens calls for alternative energy. Their Google.org Director of Climate Change and Energy Initiatives, Dan Reicher, told the We won't be surprised to see other tech companies start boosting this effort, as they expand and compete for similar resources like access to the Oregon site. The Internet's resources have almost become a necessity for millions, and anything that keeps the lights on less expensively gets top marks from us.