How much water will TSMC Arizona use? Probably a lot less than you think
After recycling, TSMC Arizona's first semiconductor fab is on track to use a fraction of the water that Phoenix initially estimated. TSMC Arizona is building a water-intensive semiconductor plant in Phoenix, Arizona, which is expected to use significantly less water than anticipated. The first of three fabrication facilities, called fabs, is set to use 4.75 million gallons a day when it becomes fully operational next year, roughly equivalent to the water used to supply 14,250 Phoenix homes. This water is not just raw water use, but it doesn't count the recycling efforts being made to reduce that number. The factory is on track to recycle about 65% of the water it uses initially, mostly for cooling and other processes that don't require ultra-pure water. A new recycling facility is also being designed to purify the water TSMC has already used in manufacturing to meet ultra-Pure standards. The company expects to reuse at least 90% of its first fab's use in late 2027, bringing its projected total water usage down to about 1 million gallons per day, less than 1% of which is for residential use.
نشرت : قبل 10 شهور بواسطة Joanna Allhands في Environment
TSMC Arizona looks like an imposing factory from Interstate 17.
And it’s even bigger when you drive by on Loop 303, a series of giant buildings rising from bare desert.
Combine its stature with national news stories asking why Phoenix is building a water-intensive semiconductor plant in the desert, and, understandably, people have concerns.
They want to know how much water the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company is planning to use. And how big of a bite that will take out of Phoenix’s water supplies.
Now, we have a much better idea.
How much water is TSMC expecting to use?
The first of three fabrication facilities — called fabs — is on track to use 4.75 million gallons a day when it becomes fully operational early next year.
That’s roughly the water it takes to supply 14,250 Phoenix homes — or about 2% of the city’s housing units — each day.
And that’s just raw water use. It doesn’t count the recycling TSMC is putting in place to reduce that number.
According to Greg Jackson, TSMC Arizona’s facilities director, the factory is on track to recycle about 65% of the water it uses initially — mostly for cooling and other processes that don’t require ultra-pure water.
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Design also is underway for a facility that would purify the water TSMC has already used in manufacturing to the ultra-pure standards it needs to rinse its wafers.
Jackson explains that’s why semiconductor manufacturing uses so much water — because everything is on the scale of nanometers, much smaller than the eye can see.
Surfaces must be rinsed frequently to keep even microscopic particles from fouling up those tiny transistors during production.
How much does recycling change that number?
TSMC expects the new recycling facility, which should be completed in late 2027, to reuse at least 90% of the water used in its first fab.
Jackson says that would bring its projected 4.75 million gallons per day down to about 1 million gallons per day — or roughly the water it takes to serve 3,000 homes.
That might still sound like a lot, but it’s less than 1% of the water Phoenix delivers to customers in a day — most of which is for residential use.
For comparison, Intel’s Arizona facilities, which employ 12,000 at four fabs with two more under construction, withdrew roughly 8.6 million gallons of water a day in 2023.
More than 80% of that water was captured after use and purified at treatment plants operated by Intel and the city of Chandler.
That water was either returned to the fabs for reuse in manufacturing or its cooling towers.
Or it was reused within the city or injected into the ground to recharge the aquifer — meaning that about 1.5 million gallons per day was consumed during manufacturing at its multiple fabs.
What does that mean for Phoenix's water supply?
TSMC estimates its Arizona operation will employ 6,000, producing millions of advanced microchips each year to power cellphones and artificial intelligence, among other uses.
It hasn’t yet offered water-use estimates for the next two fabs, which will produce even smaller transistors. The second fab — the shell of which is now rising on the north Phoenix campus — is expected to be up and running by 2028.
But if use parallels what is expected in the first fab, it should be far less than Phoenix’s initial estimate of 40,000 acre-feet — or about 13 billion gallons — annually when the facility is fully built out.
The city earmarked renewable supplies for TSMC that aren’t currently supporting other users, including an allocation of Central Arizona Project water from the state land department and unused Salt and Verde river supplies.
Which is good news for all of us.
The less of that water TSMC uses, the more will be left over for others across Phoenix.
Reach Allhands at [email protected]. On X, formerly Twitter: @joannaallhands.
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المواضيع: Environment-ESG