DingoBorat
Slim
Cutting out incredibly stupid things, like Cryptocurrency mining, would more than make up for things like that, as concerning as they are.
Chipmaking’s Next Big Thing Guzzles as Much Power as Entire Countries
Smaller and more energy-efficient semiconductors increasingly require so much electricity that Asia is going to have a tough time quitting fossil fuels.www.bloomberg.com
Chipmaking’s Next Big Thing Guzzles as Much Power as Entire Countries
The machines needed to make the world’s most advanced semiconductors are miracles of modern engineering. Known as extreme ultraviolet lithography systems, or EUVs, they bathe silicon wafers with waves of light invisible to the human eye, burning patterns into materials on the wafer’s surface that need to be exact within a few nanometers. To create the specialized light, EUVs vaporize molten tin with lasers, then use mirrors to focus the radiance into thinner wavelengths. Only one company in the world— ASML Holding NV of the Netherlands—makes the bus-size devices, which cost more than $150 million and consist of 100,000 separate components.
EUVs are also a prime illustration of how the push to make semiconductors that are smaller, more capable, and more energy-efficient is leading to manufacturing processes that are more complicated and energy-intensive. Each machine is rated to consume about 1 megawatt of electricity, about 10 times more than previous generations of equipment. With no alternative available to make the most advanced kinds of semiconductors, the chip industry is a potentially significant stumbling block to the drive to reduce global carbon emissions.
No one has purchased more EUVs than Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world’s largest supplier of outsourced chips. It currently has more than 80 and is in the midst of installing a new generation of the machines as part of a $20 billion chip foundry in Tainan, a city in southern Taiwan. Because of the vast amount of power needed to run EUVs, TSMC is expected to soon consume more energy than the entire 21 million-person population of Sri Lanka. In 2020 the company accounted for about 6% of Taiwan’s overall energy consumption. It’s expected to use 12.5% of it by 2025.
Around the globe, governments that profess a desire to lower carbon emissions are also eager to build domestic semiconductor manufacturing capacity to defend against supply chain shocks and geopolitical disruptions. The US recently passed a $52 billion plan to bring chip production capacities onshore, and the European Chips Act encompasses $49 billion in investments to revive the industry within the European Union. Environmental impact doesn’t seem to have been an important consideration in either jurisdiction. “Although there are conditions to be met for companies to obtain funds, none of these acts have yet to specify climate-related targets,” says David Kang, head of Japan and South Korea research at BloombergNEF.
ASML is experiencing unprecedented demand. Bloomberg Intelligence senior analyst Masahiro Wakasugi predicts the company could see more than a 30% increase in annual sales in 2023, to about $26 billion, despite pressure from the US to stop providing to China even the equipment to make less advanced chips. Chief Financial Officer Roger Dassen said in April that ASML is investigating the possibility of increasing shipments to 90 of its EUVs in 2025, from an original target of 70 units.
Probably by 1000 fold..
Bitcoin (alone) the world's largest cryptocurrency, currently consumes an estimated 150 terawatt-hours of electricity annually — more than the entire country of Argentina, population 45 million. 4 May 2022.
Future generations, will scorn Mankind's folly and wastage of the Earth's valuable and finite resources, on something you can't even fffing see or touch!!
As far as I'm concerned, Cryptocurrency mining is a crime against the Planet and is the ultimate expression of selfishness.
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