Why Google's future lies in the energy industry

January 12 news, according to foreign media reports, Google wants to enter the energy industry is not news. As early as 2007, Google developed a renewable energy source that is lower in cost than coal. As part of the implementation of the above plan, Google invested in a number of renewable energy startups and acquired related projects.

Although Google was ambitious to develop renewable energy projects that year, its efforts did not bring about the desired results. Google once focused on photovoltaic power generation as a key research object for renewable energy projects. Google plans to use special mirrors to refract sunlight to power transmission towers, and the latter can use sunlight to drive turbines to generate electricity. However, after practice tests, Google’s solar photovoltaic power generation cost is much higher than that of traditional solar panel power generation. In addition, solar photovoltaic power generation has not been welcomed by the buyer’s market and the plan has to be stopped. Google’s renewable energy R&D plan is basically in a state of silence after this.

After the time entered 2014, Google seems to have resumed its dream of "renewable energy." In 2014, Google funded the acquisition of Nest Labs, a home automation research and development company. This move was seen by the outside world as a “crazy move.” In my opinion, the acquisition of Nest Labs is actually Google’s intention to once again enter the energy field. This time, Google’s dream will become reality.

Nest Labs' Nest thermostat regulator appears to be just a home smart device, but in fact it may become a hub for home automation. Door locks, lighting, garage doors, security cameras, and other household products can be trained into Nest thermostats, and Google's online products can also be used to remotely control household products through Nest thermostats.

A major feature of Nest's home automation products is the deployment of a Rush Hour Rewards program. Simply put, when the Nest product monitors household energy expenditures, it will send instructions to the home appliance that it is trained in to reduce energy consumption according to a preset pattern, such as turning off the air conditioner, delaying the dishwasher's working hours, or suspending Charge the electric car and so on. This energy consumption feedback function developed by Nest can prevent users from using energy unrestrainedly during peak energy consumption and increase energy expenditure. Nest's energy rush hour feedback program has a huge attraction for Google. Google plans to sign a service contract with the user. After the contract, users can enjoy Google's on-line automatic intelligent control of home devices.

Although the energy peak time feedback program is Nest's latest research and development achievement, it is still unknown how much economic benefit it can bring to the company. However, I believe that Google’s acquisition of Nest has indeed opened up new sources for its own revenue growth. For example, Google can use this to charge utility companies a certain amount of service fees, and the most profitable ones should also be sales of Google’s smart home products. This will surely become Google's new profit growth point. The products introduced by Nest not only include home thermostats, but also launch a series of home smart devices including smoke alarms. The sales of these devices will bring considerable benefits to Google. At the same time, Nest's hardware products also attracted a number of third-party organizations to develop applications that are suitable for them. Software usage fees and firmware licensing fees will become Google's new revenue.

It turns out that Google is not an expert in the production of energy, but it is a good player for data collection and analysis. The role of Nest in the smart home field is very similar to that of Google, which has also become Google's capital in these areas. The combination of Google and Nest can save consumers and public utilities companies millions of dollars in costs, which will become the root cause of Google's future in the smart home market.