全球晶片綠能化的挑戰 | Chip Industries’ Combats to Climate Change
科技二氧化碳的最大元兇 — 晶片製造產業 | Technology’s biggest culprit of carbon dioxide — the chip manufacturing industry
English Version (中文版在下面)
With the continuous evolution of artificial intelligence technology, especially the rise of large-scale models such as deep learning, the demand for computing resources is growing rapidly. The expansion of artificial intelligence applications has caused the demand for chip computing throughput to continue to rise. In recent years, it has shown an exponential growth, which has directly led to a large demand for electric energy in the technology industry. According to the paper “Chasing Carbon: The Elusive Environmental Footprint of Computing” , the electricity energy usage of the technology industry is expected to reach 20% of the total global electricity consumption in 2030. Google also pointed out that the computing demand of artificial intelligence models will double in about 3–4 months, showing exponential rapid growth. This creates a challenging balance between the development of the technology industry and energy consumption.
Hardware manufacturing — the main culprit of carbon emissions in the technology industry
When I look at the impact of the chip industry on the environment, it reminds me of what happened in our Department of Electrical Engineering when I was in college. There was a leak of the poisonous gas “arsenide” in a semiconductor laboratory in our Department of Electrical Engineering. The incident made news, as the gas can be fatal to humans, and also caused 44 people to seek preventive medical treatment. It can be seen that the semiconductor industry will involve many highly polluting substances and will cause fatal risks to the environment and people, such as water pollution, air pollution, human health and other issues. Here we further focus on the impact on climate The largest “carbon emissions” are in the technology industry. Hardware and chip manufacturing cause the largest amount of carbon pollution.
Let’s take a look at the petroleum automobile industry first. Not only does it produce carbon dioxide when you burn petroleum while driving, but it also produces a lot of carbon dioxide during the excavation, processing, and transportation of petroleum. Finally, when you refuel, you also produce a lot of carbon dioxide at the same time. of carbon dioxide, so you can divide the sources of carbon dioxide into two parts: hardware raw material manufacturing and product use. Since the energy conversion efficiency of petroleum engines is only about 30%, while electric vehicles can be as high as 80%, for the automotive industry in “product use” There is a lot of room for improvement in carbon emissions, so the development of electric vehicles can greatly improve the carbon emissions problem.
Similarly, the carbon emissions of the technology industry can also be divided into hardware raw material manufacturing and product use. In the technology industry. The part used in the product is taken as an example of the iPhone. While its performance is getting better and better, its energy consumption is also getting better and better. Scientists are also investing a lot of resources in developing energy-saving products. Therefore, more of the carbon pollution proportion falls on the hardware obtain and manufacture. The figure below shows the proportion of carbon emissions in all aspects of Apple’s products. The red “hardware manufacturing (Manufacturing)” part accounts for about 74% of the largest amount, and the chip (Integrated Circuit) even accounts for hardware manufacturing. More than half of the total is in product use (Product Use), which accounts for only 19%.
Why does product use only account for 19%?
The continuous improvement of chip computing energy efficiency and the development of green energy data centers
As mentioned earlier, in order to pursue longer battery life of mobile devices, the technology industry continues to optimize the computing energy efficiency (Performance per Watt) of electronic products. From the design of the chip, it seeks to achieve high performance but low power consumption. For a low-cost solution, let’s compare the iPhone’s latest A15 chip with its previous generation A14 chip. The computing power increases by up to 20% without changing the energy consumption. In other words, assuming that all iPhones in Taiwan are updated from 14 to 15, it can It directly increases the total computing performance by 20%, but the total carbon emissions of product use remain the same. This allows the iPhone to run software more efficiently or support more functions to meet consumer needs.
On the other hand, I believe you have often heard about cloud computing and data centers. These things are not mainly run on the user side. Instead, there are a group of computing and storage chips connected in series behind them to use the Internet to serve a large number of Users, and these centers are also global energy behemoths. Let’s think about it. In the computer classroom in the old elementary school, was the air-conditioning never turned off? As soon as you enter the summer, you can feel the feeling of cooling down. The reason is that a large number of computers need to be kept in a low-temperature environment to maintain normal operation. The same principle applies to these computing data centers, which require a complete cooling system to handle the heat energy generated by a large number of calculations. Therefore, in addition to the chip computing energy consumption, there is also an additional cooling system energy consumption.
But if you think about it carefully, what methods do migratory birds use to survive the cold winter and mild summer? It’s migration! Nature is the best temperature regulation system.
Enterprises are very smart to take advantage of the geographical environment and develop computing and data centers in Finland. They use the local cold climate to help cool down these energy giants. Furthermore, they turn the heat energy of these data centers into heating for residents. The heat energy required by the system kills two birds with one stone and doubles the problem of carbon emissions! Microsoft will try to start doing this in 2022 to achieve the development of “green energy” data centers.
Challenges facing TSMC in Taiwan
Before discussing carbon emissions, it is worth noting Taiwan’s share of the global semiconductor industry. The latest data shows that as of the first half of 2023, Taiwan’s revenue in the global semiconductor industry accounted for more than 60%, approximately US$20 billion (the global total Revenue is approximately US$31 billion). Among them, TSMC is the largest, which highlights Taiwan’s importance in the semiconductor field. TSMC’s efforts in greening chip manufacturing not only contribute to global climate protection, but also bear an important responsibility in protecting Taiwan from pollution from wafer fabs.
First of all, wafer fabs require a lot of water and electricity. According to statistics, TSMC uses about 5–7% of Taiwan’s electricity and needs about 150,000 tons of clean pure water every day. These water resources are eventually converted into sewage, which needs to be safely discharged through sewage treatment plants. These operations will generate a large carbon footprint, and may also affect the water and electricity consumption of Taiwanese people, causing livelihood problems. In 2019, when TSMC came to NTU to recruit talents, it mentioned its plan to build a zero-emission fab using renewable energy and set a goal to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. As a student at the time, my thought was that TSMC was actually doing these things silently, and hearing about the way their factories were designed, their power sources, and how they treated sewage, every link was covered, which greatly impressed me. Amazing. Of course, Apple continues to promote environmental protection and requires the supply chain to achieve zero carbon emissions by 2030. As an industry leader, TSMC has more or less felt huge pressure to develop such a plan. TSMC is also very confident in this goal, and even advanced the goal to 2040 this year.
Conclusion
Although the rapid development of the semiconductor industry has promoted the progress of the technology industry and made human life more convenient, we should not ignore the impact of this industry on the environment. There are billions of transistors behind a tiny chip, and it is made of complex raw materials, machinery and energy. However, scientists are constantly improving every production link to reduce carbon emissions. As people in science and technology, we can make positive contributions to environmental protection by saving water and reducing energy waste.
References
- Thesis: Chasing Carbon: The Elusive Environmental Footprint of Computing
- Google discusses the exponential growth of AI
- Finnish Development Information Center, using it to develop urban heating systems
- Microsoft develops green energy data center in Finland
- The chip industry’s impact on carbon footprint and climate
- Apple calls on global supply chain to decarbonize by 2030
- Accelerating the adoption of renewable energy, TSMC announced that the RE100 target timeline has been advanced to 2040
中文版本
前言
隨著人工智慧技術的不斷演進，尤其是深度學習等大型模型的興起，對計算資源的需求呈現快速增長。人工智慧應用的擴大使得晶片的計算吞吐量需求不斷攀升，近年來呈現一個指數型的成長，這直接導致科技產業對電力能源的大量需求，據論文《Chasing Carbon: The Elusive Environmental Footprint of Computing》指出，科技產業的電力能源使用量預計在2030年將達到全球總用電量的20%，谷歌也指出人工智慧模型的計算需求在 3–4 個月左右就翻倍，呈現指數型快速成長，這使得科技產業的發展與能源消耗之間形成了一種挑戰性的平衡。
硬體製造–科技產業碳排放的元兇
當在看晶片產業對環境的影響時，這讓我想起在念大學時，我們電機系所發生的事情，當初在我們電機系的某間半導體實驗所，發生毒氣「砷化氫」外洩的事件，造成一時新聞，此氣體是可以造成人體致命的，而且也讓 44 人預防性就醫。由此可知，半導體這個產業是會牽扯到許多高汙染性物質，並會對環境以及人員造成致命風險，如水源汙染、空氣汙染、人體健康等問題，而在這邊我們進一步聚焦在對於氣候影響最大的「碳排放」，在科技產業這一環中，硬體、晶片製造所造成的碳汙染為最大宗。
我們先看看石油汽車產業，不僅僅是當你在開車時燃燒石油會製造二氧化碳，乃至在石油的挖取加工，到後面的運送，最後當你在做加油的這個動作時，也同時製造很多的二氧化碳，因此你可以將二氧化碳的來源分成兩大部分：硬體原料製造跟產品使用，由於石油引擎的能源轉換效率只有 30% 左右，而電動車可以高達 80%，對於汽車產業在「產品使用」的碳排放是有很大的進步空間的，因此電動車的發展，可以大大改善碳排放的問題。
同樣地，科技產業的碳排放也可以區分為硬體原料製造跟產品使用。在科技產業中．產品使用的部分已 iPhone 來舉例，其效能愈來愈進步的同時，耗能也愈來愈好，科學家也挹注很多資源在開發出節能的產品，因此更多的碳汙染比例落在硬體的取得及製造。下圖呈現的是 Apple 的所有產品在各個環節中所佔的碳排放比例，而紅色「硬體製造 (Manufacturing)」的部分占最大宗約 74%，晶片(Integrated Circuit) 甚至占了硬體製造部份的一半以上，相對來說在產品使用 (Product Use) 上面只佔了 19%.
而為何在產品的使用只占 19% 呢?
晶片運算能料效率不斷進步，以及綠能資料中心的發展
前面有提到，為了追求更長的行動裝置電池使用時間，科技業不斷的去針對電子產品進行運算能源效益 (Performance per Watt) 的優化，從晶片的設計上去尋求同時效能強大，但功耗又低的解決方案，我們來比較 iPhone 最新的 A15 晶片以及其上一代 A14 晶片，運算能力在耗能不變的情況下，增加高達 20%，換言之，假設全台灣的 iPhone 從 14 更新到 15，可以直接讓總運算效能提升 20%，但產品使用的總碳排放量卻維持不變。這使得 iPhone 可以更省能的去運行軟體，抑或者支援更多的功能，來滿足消費者的需要。
另一方面，相信各位也常常聽到雲端計算、資料中心，這些東西主要不會在使用者端去運行，而是在背後有一群的計算、儲存晶片串接在一起，利用網路服務大量的使用者，而這些中心也是全球的能量巨獸。大家回想一下，以前的小學的電腦教室，是不是冷氣都沒有停過？夏天一進去就能感受消暑的感覺，原因就是大量的電腦需要在低溫環境來保持正常運作。同樣的道理套用在這些計算資料中心，需要完善的冷卻系統，去解決大量計算所產生的熱能，因此除了晶片計算能耗外，又多加了一個冷卻系統的能耗。
但你仔細去想，候鳥利用什麼方法來度過寒冬、溽夏呢？就是遷徙！大自然就是最棒的溫度調節系統。
企業很聰明的去利用地理環境的優勢，在芬蘭發展計算、資料中心，利用當地寒冷氣候去幫這些能量巨獸降溫，更進一步的是，再將這些資料中心的熱能，變成提供居民的暖氣系統所需的熱能，一石二鳥，加倍解決碳排放的問題！微軟在 2022 年嘗試開始這樣做，去達到「綠能」資料中心的發展。
台灣台積電所面臨的挑戰
在討論碳排放之前，值得注意的是台灣在全球半導體產業的占比，最新數據顯示，截至2023年上半年，台灣在全球半導體產業的收益佔比超過六成，約高達200億美金（全球總收益約310億美金）。其中，台積電為最大宗，這突顯了台灣在半導體領域的重要性。台積電在晶片製造綠能化方面的努力，不僅有助於全球氣候保護，也在保護台灣免受晶圓廠的汙染方面負有重要責任。
首先，晶圓廠需要大量的水以及電，根據統計，台積電約使用全台 5–7% 的電力，每天約需要使用 15 萬噸的乾淨純水。這些水資源最終轉化為汙水，需要透過汙水處理廠進行安全的排放。這些操作將產生大量的碳足跡，同時也可能對台灣民眾的用水用電產生影響，造成民生問題。而在 2019 年，台積電來台大電機徵才時即提到利用再生能源興建零排放的晶圓廠的計畫，並設定目標在 2050 年達到淨零排放。我當時身為學生的想法就是，台積電竟然有默默在做這些事情，而聽了他們工廠設計的方式，乃至於他們的電力來源，到他們怎麼處理汙水，各個環節都有去著墨，讓我大大驚艷，當然 Apple 不斷地提倡環保，對供應鏈要求 2030 年能達到零碳排放，身為產業龍頭的台積電，或多或少也感受到龐大的壓力，促使其發展這樣的計畫。而台積電也對此目標相當有信心，甚至在今年將目標提前至 2040年，。
結語
半導體產業的高速發展雖然帶動了科技行業的進步，使人類生活更加便利，但我們不應忽視這個產業對環境的影響。一片微小的晶片背後蘊含數十億顆電晶體，是由複雜的原料、機具和能源製造而成。然而，科學家們正不斷改進每個生產環節，以減少碳排放。作為科技人，我們可以通過節約用水、減少能源浪費等方式，為環境保護作出積極的貢獻。
