Current Events > Why are semiconductor manufacturing plants in Arizona or other water lacking

(+) Yeah! (+)

Areas?
Seems stupid. Put that shit in Oregon

I'd imagine they've dug into the data and feel confident enough about it long term. But I'd be interested in finding more info on that.

I'd much rather the water I'm Arizona be used for this than the agricultural use it's used for currently.

https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/joannaallhands/2022/03/04/arizona-semiconductor-intel-tsmc-water-use/6915685001/

Phoenix water officials are planning for water use around 10,000 acre-feet a year at TSMCs 5-nanometer fab and up to 40,000 acre-feet a year if, at some point down the road, there were six fabs on site. (The company has not announced anything other than the first fab, which is set to open in 2024).

So, while TSMC is likely to become one of Phoenixs largest water users, the city has renewable supplies that arent currently supporting other users to accommodate this growth. That includes an allocation of Central Arizona Project water from the state land department and unused Salt and Verde river supplies.

The citys estimates also dont account for any water recycling that TSMC is planning to do, or any wastewater the city might capture, treat and return to the aquifer.

Thats the key with semiconductor plants. While the chips that power our cellphones, computers and other electronics require a fair bit of water to produce, much of it is recycled.

Intel has two campuses in Chandler with multiple fabs, for example, which used about 16,000 acre-feet of municipal water in 2020, according to its latest annual report. But just because that water flowed to the campuses doesnt mean it was consumed.

About 80% of that water was captured after use and purified at treatment plants operated by Intel and the city of Chandler, then either returned to the fabs for reuse in manufacturing or its cooling towers, or reused within the city or injected into the ground to recharge the aquifer.

About 6,200 acre-feet of water were treated on-site and reused without entering the municipal wastewater system, according to the report, while only about 2,900 acre-feet of water was consumed and therefore unable to be reused during the manufacturing process

TSMC, meanwhile, is working with Phoenix on what appears to be a similar reclamation setup, using reverse osmosis and other technologies to treat water for manufacturing or municipal reuse.

And while the company declined to offer specifics on the volume of water its facilities could treat, deputy spokesperson Nina Kao said via email that approximately 65% of the water used in the Arizona fab will come from TSMCs in-house water reclamation system, helping to reduce city water consumption.
Thats also what it would take to irrigate about 3,200 acres of cotton, since one acre uses, on average, about 5 acre-feet of water. (Its estimated that 8,500 acres of cotton were harvested in Maricopa County and 74,100 acres were harvested in Pinal County in 2020.)

If water is an investment, we get a return
Sarah Porter, director of Arizona State Universitys Kyl Center for Water Policy told KJZZ that for every million gallons we spend (thats about 3 acre-feet), we get about 200 high-wage semiconductor jobs in return. Thats compared to 30 or 40 data center jobs or about 50 golf course jobs, she said.
Meanwhile, Intel had an $8.6 billion impact on Arizonas gross domestic product in 2019, directly employing more than 10,000 and supporting another 58,600 jobs. And TSMC is expected to generate $38.2 billion in tax revenue statewide over 20 years, with 1,900 employees at its first fab when it opens.

The company is hiring much of its staff locally, Phoenix economic development director Christine Mackay said, and multiple suppliers have announced plans to build or expand all over the metro Phoenix area. Those and other suppliers are expected to generate another 6,000 jobs for the region, Mackay said.

Given all the ways that we could allocate our water, semiconductor plants that recycle most of what they use are not a bad investment.

because there's a shit ton of empty area in places like Arizona that they would love to see monetized - forget the fact that it will never be remotely profitable lol