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Yahoo’s second Computing Coop (YCC) data-center facility was the expansion of its Lockport, New York, campus. Yahoo announced the project in March 2013; the completed expansion was operating by April 2015 as part of a roughly $170 million build-out. It added two 30,000-square-foot computer rooms, 7.2 megawatts of hydropower capacity and a design intended to cool servers with outside air for about 98% of the year.
What Yahoo actually launched
The wording “second Computing Coop” can be confusing because Lockport was developed in phases. New York State Senate records say Phase I was completed in September 2010. Yahoo announced an additional Lockport facility in March 2013, describing it as an expansion using the Yahoo Compute Coop architecture and planning 115 jobs. Data Center Knowledge reported that the completed expansion came online by April 2015.
The 2015 expansion contained two 30,000-square-foot computer rooms. Its reported investment was $170 million; a separate New York State Senate record put the overall project investment at $171 million, reflecting the broader Lockport development. Those figures describe different reporting scopes rather than a proven contradiction.
Where the facility was and why Yahoo chose Lockport
The campus was in Lockport, New York, in the Niagara region. The location combined several operating advantages:
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- A cool climate that allowed long periods of outside-air economization.
- Access to relatively low-cost hydropower supplied through the New York Power Authority (NYPA).
- Lower land and labor costs than many major data-center markets, plus an available workforce.
- State and local tax incentives that reduced the cost of building and operating the campus.
New York State Senate reporting lists 10 megawatts of NYPA hydropower for Phase I and another 5 megawatts planned for Phase II. Data Center Knowledge later reported 7.2 megawatts of hydropower for the completed 2015 expansion. Because the sources refer to different phases and scopes, these numbers should not be added together as if they were one single capacity figure.
How the “chicken-coop” cooling design worked
YCC used a long, open building form modeled on a chicken coop. Large louvers in the side walls admitted outdoor air. Fans and pressure differences moved that air across the server rows; after absorbing heat, the warmer air rose into an upper plenum and left through high-level louvers.
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This approach is commonly called air-side economization or free cooling. It avoids running compressor-based chillers when outdoor conditions are suitable. Yahoo’s 2013 announcement said outside-air cooling worked for approximately 98% of the year at the planned facility. During hotter conditions, evaporative cooling could supplement the airflow. Mechanical chillers were not the normal cooling method described for the YCC design.
What the design reduced—and what it did not eliminate
- Lower cooling electricity: Fans and controls generally require less energy than mechanical refrigeration.
- Less mechanical complexity: Eliminating routine chiller operation can simplify construction and maintenance.
- Weather dependence: The 98% figure is an approximate operating claim for outside-air cooling, not a promise that no backup cooling was ever needed.
- Air-quality and humidity controls: An outdoor-air system still needs filtration, monitoring and control logic to protect equipment.
Power, efficiency and the PUE figures
Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) is total data-center facility power divided by the power delivered to information-technology equipment. A value closer to 1.00 indicates less overhead for cooling, power distribution and other infrastructure.
| Figure | What it represents | Attribution and qualification |
|---|---|---|
| 1.08 PUE | Yahoo Lockport YCC example | Engineering example in a 2013 U.S. Patent and Trademark Office disclosure; not a measurement for every Yahoo facility. |
| 1.25 PUE | Designed target | Target stated in the same 2013 patent disclosure. |
| 1.62 PUE | Santa Clara colocation comparison | Comparison example in that disclosure, not a like-for-like operating test of the Lockport campus. |
| 7.2 MW | Hydropower reported for the 2015 expansion | Data Center Knowledge, 2015. |
| 98% of the year | Planned outside-air cooling availability | Yahoo/Business Wire launch announcement, 2013; approximate and facility-specific. |
The 1.08 figure indicates why YCC attracted attention: in the cited engineering example, only about eight percent of facility power was overhead beyond the IT load. It does not establish that every Yahoo data center achieved 1.08, nor does it provide a current audited performance record for the Lockport campus.
Was YCC more efficient than a conventional data center?
On the evidence available for this project, the design was intended to be more energy-efficient than a conventional chiller-dependent facility. The strongest numerical comparison is the patent disclosure’s 1.08 Lockport example versus a 1.62 Santa Clara colocation example. However, those are engineering-disclosure examples, not a controlled, same-year comparison under identical workloads, climates, occupancy levels and accounting rules.
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YCC’s advantage came from several factors working together:
- Free cooling for most outdoor conditions.
- A cool northern climate that extended economizer hours.
- High-efficiency electrical and airflow design.
- Hydropower with comparatively low operating cost and lower direct carbon intensity than fossil-heavy electricity.
- A modular building approach intended to reduce construction waste and simplify expansion.
The U.S. Department of Energy described YCC as an “efficient data factory” research project focused on free cooling, lower energy use, reduced waste, simpler construction and lower operating cost. That description explains the design goals; it is not a guarantee of a particular annual PUE for the full campus.
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What Yahoo services ran there
Yahoo senior director of data-center operations Paul Bonaro said, “If you’re using any Yahoo service at all, be it mail, the social network Tumblr, or the photo service Flickr, there’s a good chance it’s being served out of Lockport.” The statement illustrates the campus’s role in Yahoo’s production infrastructure, although it does not identify a fixed service-to-building assignment or prove that every request used Lockport.
Why the project mattered beyond Yahoo
Lockport demonstrated a data-center strategy built around climate, power pricing and infrastructure economics rather than simply locating near a large city. The project also provided a practical example of using passive airflow and evaporative assistance at hyperscale. DOE documentation discussed possible licensing and operational deployment of YCC ideas, but no current public Yahoo or successor licensing program is established here.
For businesses evaluating a similar facility, the relevant comparison is not “chicken coop” versus “ordinary building” in isolation. It is a combination of cooling method, electricity source and price, PUE, water use, climate, construction speed, modular expansion, incentives and local employment. A design that works in cool Lockport may require different controls, water systems or backup cooling in a hot or humid region.
What is—and is not—known today
The historical record establishes the Lockport expansion’s announcement, approximate completion date, architecture, reported power arrangements and stated efficiency examples. It does not establish the campus’s current owner, operating status, successor-company licensing arrangements or present-day PUE. Those questions require current corporate, property and technology-transfer records rather than assumptions based on Yahoo’s 2013–2015 announcements.
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