Google is considering deploying the supercomputers necessary to operate its Internet search engines on barges anchored up to seven miles offshore.

The “water-based data centers” would use wave energy to power and cool their computers, reducing Google’s costs. Their offshore status would also mean the company would no longer have to pay property taxes on its data centers, which are sited across the world.

Data centers consumed 1 per cent of the world’s electricity in 2005. By 2020, the carbon footprint of the computers that run the Internet will be larger than that of air travel.