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🗞️Driving the News: Insufficient access to renewable energy in Asian markets is causing the region's leading chipmakers to lag behind their U.S. and European counterparts in reducing carbon emissions
• Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC) and Samsung Electronics, global leaders in chip production, are finding it particularly challenging to reduce their domestic carbon footprints due to a lack of green energy
🔭 The Context: Chipmaking, especially cutting-edge ones, is highly energy-intensive
• A lack of availability of renewable energy in countries like Taiwan and South Korea threatens the environmental goals of companies like TSMC and Samsung, even though the industry pushes for greener options
🌏 Why it Matters for the Planet: Coal, oil, and natural gas dominate the energy landscape in Taiwan and South Korea
• The carbon footprint associated with chip production in these regions necessitates a shift towards renewable energy sources in order to combat climate change effectively
⏭️ What's Next: Both Samsung and TSMC have committed to using 100% renewable energy by 2050 for global operations
• However, the limited access to green energy in their home markets might delay this goal
• On the other hand, U.S. and European chipmakers (including Intel, Infineon, and STMicroelectronics) aim to reach the same target before 2030
💬 One Quote: "Whether your energy is green enough could become a decisive factor on whether you could get orders in the future," ( Doris Hsu, chair and chief executive of GlobalWafers)
📈 One Stat: Taiwan generated more than 80% of its energy needs from coal, oil, and natural gas, with renewable energy accounting for just over 8% in 2022
• In contrast, the U.S. generated 22% of its electricity from renewable sources in the same year, and in the European Union, renewable energy made up 41% of the energy produced
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