I mean, why give money to someone else so they can build wind or solar power farms and then realize the profits from those farms? What’s the return on investment for Yahoo? Zero. How much equity does Yahoo have in those wind or solar farms? Zero. How much less carbon does it cause Yahoo emit? Zero. WTF? What a scam these offsets are!

(Although there is a slight, but unmeasurable, gain from the marketing of your “greenness” that you can get by claiming that you buy these credits, but that is a very expensive way to do it.)

Instead, invest the exact same amount of money in your own company for better power efficiency. Return-on-investment: more than 100% over the life of the improvement. Ownership of the improvements: 100%. How much less carbon? Whatever the efficiency gain is. That is not only greener, it makes good economic sense.

- Edwin Hoogerbeets, former Yahoo employee and green team member

Congratulations on your plans to create a more energy efficient infrastructure. With or without cap and trade, I hope we see many more firms following your lead in focusing on both energy conservation and a preference for renewable energy in their operations. In the long run, it is both socially responsible and makes business sense.

At the same time, why fall into the trap of what Jim Collins would call “the Tyranny of or”? If Yahoo’s target is 40% reduction of carbon emissions from data centers by 2014, why not continue to support outside programs via offsets while you build toward that target? And what about air travel? Each flight by a Yahoo employee is roughly the carbon equivalent of powering a server for a year. Savings in your data centers will not balance out the negative impact of flying.

There are many worthwhile and quantifiable carbon projects for Yahoo to support as part of an overall emissions reduction portfolio effort. Over 25 million acres of forest are lost every year. Millions of people in the poorest areas of the world suffer from smoke related illnesses from using kerosene and firewood rather than solar for lighting and cooking. Offsets are a powerful tool to address these issues while creating a more sustainable world. Projects that save forests or offer fuel switching opportunities as a method of carbon emissions reduction are just as critical as using more efficient servers.

My organization (ClimatePath) does not think it is “either/or”: both conservation/energy efficiency AND socially responsible offsetting are a part of the solution. We hope you reconsider your position on the latter.

Regards,

Dave Rochlin
Founder, ClimatePath (www.climatepath.org)

@Phil Hughes: Thanks for your thoughts. Due to the fact that Yahoo deploys such large quantities of servers, we also must build our data centers to operate within the current environment of readily available gear that we can procure and utilize at scale. Thus, we have designs that best optimize in an air cooled environment. This is one example.

We’ve got high density compute environments. We’ve got low density archive storage environments. We operate in different climates around the world. Thus, flexibility in design and varying designs to meet different objectives are key. Our blog post refers to one such design to meet a specific density / equipment architecture need.

By the way, we look forward to learning more about your solutions as they evolve.

@Mikko: We absolutely agree and we are closely focused on both markets that you mention. That said, we still are restricted by the speed of light and availability of adequate networks, so there are times when we still must reside in areas with less optimal outside climates. For the United States, upstate NY has shown to be a good climate for our 100% outside air cooling design. We actually have more challenges dealing with the cold versus dealing with the heat :-)

Scott Noteboom
Yahoo! Data Center Operations

They may find some local staffing opportunities, especially if Y! partners with community colleges and universities.

Air cooling may work, especially in the winter.

It’s just hard to understand why Yahoo employees will want to move to the Northern Tier. The relatively low cost of living might help, but Buffalo’s epic winters might scare some folks away.

For once, Buffalo’s winters are an advantage. Why aren’t they shouting this from the rooftops?

Perfect solution!

With our cooling racks (distributed by Liebert, Inc.) we can achieve a true PUE of 1.09 (or 0.99 by the traditional measure) and densities of 2000 w/sq ft. And you can put a system in any building that has power. An old factory or warehouse would work just fine – no need to create more pollution by more building.