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TSMC already consumes 6 percent of Taiwan’s power, and that’s a problem for the chip industry
A current report by Bloomberg on the world’s largest chip manufacturer TSMC, with extreme figures on energy consumption, makes it clear how complex it has become to produce the most modern and fast semiconductors possible for processors, graphics cards and the like.
A decisive factor here: The comparatively young, but also power-hungry manufacturing process using EUV lithography extreme ultra violet lithography
). The right machines come from the Dutch company ASML, you can find out more here:
Hardly known
The future of the chip industry depends on this company
According to Bloomberg, each of these machines consumes about one megawatt ten times as much energy like previous solutions in this area. The Taiwanese contract manufacturer TSMC, which produces chips for AMD, Apple and Nvidia, among others, currently has more than 80 of them in use.
This extreme energy demand could become an increasing problem not only for the chip manufacturers but also for the countries in which they are located.
One company uses as much electricity as Sri Lanka
Due to the high power consumption of the EUV process, it is expected that TSMC alone will soon consume more power than the entire population of Sri Lanka of over 21 million people. Looking at Taiwan, TSMC accounts for six percent of the country’s total energy consumption, which is projected to rise to 12.5 percent by 2025.
At the same time, Bloomberg states that the majority of this energy has so far come from fossil sources. Taiwan’s goal of covering at least 20 percent of its energy needs from renewable sources by 2025 was recently lowered to 15 percent due to insufficient progress. Currently, the share is only six percent.
It should also not be forgotten that other chip manufacturers such as Samsung, Intel and Micron also have an increasing need for EUV hardware. An analyst from Bloomberg estimates that manufacturer ASML will increase sales by 30 percent in 2023. In addition, 90 EUV devices are to be sold by 2025 instead of the previously targeted 70:
The number of EUV devices delivered by ASML has recently increased rapidly and it is set to continue.
Own power plants to relieve the countries?
Liang Chi-yuan, a management professor at the National Central University in Taoyuan, says that in the future chip manufacturers will have to set up their own power plants to ensure that the country’s supply does not experience blackouts in the event of unforeseen peak loads.
Taiwan’s power reserves are already approaching the government’s target of at least 10 percent. According to Liang, it is likely that this mark will be broken later in the year and the reserves will fall below 10 percent.
In the future, power consumption during chip production could also become an issue in Germany. Intel announced in early 2022 that it would build a new chip factory in Magdeburg. However, the start of production is not expected until 2027. Construction work is scheduled to begin in early 2023.
High electricity prices: Is it worth completely disconnecting the PC from the network overnight?
If we switch the perspective from the big picture to each individual one, you might be interested in the article linked above. He addresses the standby energy consumption of a gaming PC.
