I still get a chuckle out of Google’s Copernicus Center for a “planned lunar hosting and research center.” One of the ways G charms us all is by demonstrating its sense of humor.

When I visited the G campus in Mountain View a few years ago they discussed the inefficieny of PC power supplies and later announced plans to work with Intel on provding solutions. “Roughly 50 percent of the power delivered from a wall socket to a PC never actually performs any work,” according to Urs Hölzle, Google fellow and senior vice president of operations. But G said their own servers were 90 to 93 percent efficient. Back then G also said it was committed to becoming carbon neutral and ever since has been pursuing that goal by buying high quality renewable energy tax credits.

Google campus in Mountain View, CA October 2007 (photo by Kenn Stearns)

Check out the Business Summary for Google Inc. and prepare to be illuminated by the litany of things this company provides, maintains, delivers, advocates, and offers. From Google Book Search and Google Goggles to Google Voice and their new cell phone Nexus One, it’s difficult to fathom this technology company is only a dozen years old.

While the latest G news seems China-centric, it’s interesting that Google Energy recently applied for approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to become an electricity marketer. What might Google be up to this time?

G’s non-profit Google.org is testing Google PowerMeter with  “a number of utilities and plan to expand our rollout later this year.” G’s philanthropic arm is also an advocate of clean energy, moving away from fossil fuels, and “re-investing our electric grid.”

Rich Miller at Data Center Knowledgesuggests G’s “…vast, power-hungry data center network could be the primary beneficiary” of the move to particpate in the energy markets. DCK also says G keeps a tight lip on details about their hosting facilities but a presentation late last year by a G engineer indicated the company was “preparing to manage as many as 10 million servers in the future.”

Also in the future maybe G will offer us phone services, cell phones with their own Android operating systems, computers with their own Chrome operating systems, zippy wireless access, and clean green energy to power our cars, homes and businesses with transportation to get there and back.  Is there a G in your future?