One Google Data Center Idea That Really Floats

Google, which has been building out its data center inventory for the past few years, is literally floating its latest idea for the location of such facilities at the U.S. Patent Office.

The company filed a patent application for a “water-based data center” detailing a floating data center, complete with an energy supply fed by a wave-powered generator system, and a wind-powered cooling system using sea water.

The patent application, published Aug. 28, describes a modular setup that calls for “crane removable modules” that store racks of computers. The modules would facilitate adding, subtracting and moving the computing power.

The patent application also details tapping waves and water motion to generate power and the ability to configure the system in many different ways, including on-ship and on-shore data centers, various cooling mechanisms, backup systems and even temporary housing and helicopter pads to support IT maintenance staff.

Google is not the first to consider alternatives to the power-sucking data centers that …

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