No Electronics without semiconductors and no semiconductors without water

Without semiconductors there are no electronics and without sufficient water, there are no semiconductors.

New research published in iScience provides a global analysis of semiconductor manufacturing locations and the projected future water stress they are likely to experience in 2030 and 2040 as a consequence of the climate emergency.

Key findings include:

40% of existing semiconductor manufacturing facilities globally will be located in high- or extremely high water stress risk watersheds in 2030 and 2040.

24-40% of facilities currently under construction will be in high- or extremely high risk watersheds in 2030 and 2040.

40% of facilities announced since 2021 will be in high- or extremely-high risk watersheds in 2030 and 2040.

While these aggregate results are important in their own right, the configuration of supply chain networks matters a lot.

See Figure 2 of Lepawsky, Josh. 2024. ‘Climate Change Induced Water Stress and Future Semiconductor Supply Chain Risk’. iScience, January, 108791. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2024.108791. 

One example discussed in the paper is the customer-supplier relationship between Apple and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (TSMC). About 50 percent of Apple’s total revenue comes from iPhone sales. Meanwhile, a single TSMC facility in Taiwan became the sole supplier of iPhone central processing units (CPUs) in 2018 and that facility (along with several others on the island) is in a watershed projected to experience extremely high risk of water stress in 2030 and 2040. Semiconductor supply chains are not like those for other commodities, like textiles (or fast fashion). Depending on the sophistication of the semiconductor component(s) in question, a customers can’t just switch quickly to an alternative supplier if a facility (or facilities) it depends on experience problems (such as production slow downs or stoppages due to insufficient water).

Free access to the full paper is available as follows:

Lepawsky, Josh. 2024. ‘Climate Change Induced Water Stress and Future Semiconductor Supply Chain Risk’. iScience, January, 108791. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2024.108791.