LONDON, England (CNN) -- Forget the Royal Navy and the U.S. Marines -- the 'computer navy' is on its way, and digital media on the high seas are set to make a steaming comeback.
New home? Barges like this one could soon play host to Google's massive data centers.
It seemed that floating media firms were a thing of the past when the United Kingdom's last major offshore pirate radio station, Radio Caroline, followed other European and American examples and died out in the early 1990s.
But, fast-forward 20 years and enter Internet giant Google.
According to a patent application seen by London newspaper "The Times," Google is considering launching barges up to seven miles (11km) offshore to host the massive data centers required to run its Internet search engines.
The plan would likely see the data centers -- which consist of huge supercomputers -- use wave energy to power and cool themselves while stationed at sea.
In the application Google states: "Computing centers are located on a ship or ships, anchored in a water body from which energy from natural motion of the water may be captured, and turned into electricity and/or pumping power for cooling pumps to carry heat away."
Energy consumption is undoubtedly a massive issue for these giant data centers.
