yahoo data center

Companies like Google and IBM are trying to lead the world in cutting-edge, efficient data centers. Not to be outdone, on Tuesday Yahoo! announced they're hoping to change to future of data centers as well. The company unveiled plans to build one of the world's most efficient data centers in Lockport, NY, and the details do sound pretty exciting.

The data center will be powered mainly by hydroelectric power from Niagara Falls, with 90 percent of that energy going towards powering the servers. The center itself will be built to resemble a chicken coop, using 100 percent outside air to cool the servers, a task which typically gobbles up 50 percent of a data center's energy supply. And the company expects the yearly PUE average to be 1.1 or better.

In addition to building this super-efficient data center, the company also committed to reducing the carbon footprint of all their data centers by 40 percent by 2014. They intend to accomplish this through using more renewable energy sources to power their data centers, implementing more efficient building designs and improving the efficiency of the servers themselves.

Another major commitment made in this announcement was that the company would cease purchasing carbon offsets and was aiming to reduce their carbon impact directly through decreasing energy consumption. We would love to hear of more companies relying less on offsets and more on energy-saving improvements.