Internet company Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) today unveiled one of the world’s most energy-efficient data center buildings in Lockport, Niagara County, New York. The state-of-the-art facility uses a combination of innovative design and Lockport’s naturally cool climate to dramatically decrease its electricity use throughout the year.
The Lockport facility will have the first implementation of Yahoo!’s green data center design, called the Yahoo! Computing Coop (YCC). The energy-efficient design was recognized by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in 2010 with a sustainability grant of $9.9 million, the largest award received from the DOE’s recent Green IT grant program.
The facility uses a combination of Lockport’s cool climate, prevailing winds and hydropower to keep the 120-by-60-foot server buildings cool. The YCC design, dubbed the “Yahoo! Chicken Coop,” mimics the long, narrow design of a chicken coop to encourage natural air flow 100% of the time, resulting in an annualized average of less than 1% of the buildings’ total energy consumption being required to cool the facility.
“With the Yahoo! Chicken Coop design, we are spending less than one cent
for cooling for every dollar spent on electricity. Significantly
reducing our electricity usage is not only good for the environment,”
David Dibble, Executive Vice President of Yahoo!.
Yahoo!’s Lockport data center is among the most efficient data centers in the world, with a low power usage effectiveness1 (PUE) of 1.08, compared with the industry average of 1.922.
The Lockport data center will:
- Consume at least 40% less energy, and at least 95% less water than conventional data centers.
- Save enough energy to power more than 9,000 New York state households annually.
- Save more water per year than flows over the Niagara Falls for a minute straight (4 million cubic feet per minute is what the Falls flow on average).
Yahoo! is hosting a ribbon cutting event with Yahoo! executives and
elected officials, including U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) and
New York Governor, David Paterson.
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