Google made news with its patent application for designing a datacenter that floats on sea. While the search engine claimed that they file patents for very many ideas, this one in particular has a lot of potential for the future.

Datacenters are critical for large scale operations. Almost any enterprise or web based business depends on efficient data center management for its operations. At the same time, data centers can run up huge power bills. This in particular is one reason why Google's floating datacenter may be more than just an idea. Using water as a coolant and tethering the data center to power sources that derive their energy from waves may just be the perfect eco-friendly solution.

Datacenter Knowledge has a post on this.

Google's concept is based on power systems from Pelamis, a UK company that developed huge "wave snakes" comprised of a series of floating cylinders. The first commercial wave farm went live this week off the coast of Portugal, and will supply up to 2.25 megawatts of capacity to Portugal's power grid.

Here is a video link for a demo of the concept.