Climate change is a driver of water stress risk globally. Semiconductor manufacturing requires large vol- umes of water. Existing research at the intersection of water stress risk and semiconductor manufacturing offers snapshots of current conditions but has not investigated how future climate scenarios may impact semiconductor supply chain security. This study combines location data for semiconductor manufacturing facilities with data on specific customer-supplier networks and with data for global water stress risk under three climate scenarios for the years 2030 and 2040. Results suggest that 40 percent of existing facilities, 24–40 percent of facilities under construction, and 40–49 percent of facilities announced since early 2021 are in basins of high- or extremely high water stress risks in 2030 and 2040. Network dynamics mean that water stress risks could cascade from individual firms or regions of concern to systemically throughout the network, thus negatively impacting semiconductor supply chain security globally.Lepawsky, Josh. (2024). Climate change induced water stress and future semiconductor supply chain risk. iScience. 27. 108791. 10.1016/j.isci.2024.108791.
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There are efforts underway industry-wide to enhance the recycling of water for use in semiconductor manufacturing.1 These emerging systems and processes can achieve impressive recovery rates, some claiming as high as 98 percent. However, these new water reclamation systems are not evenly deployed throughout the industry and can be expensive to implement. Meanwhile, even major semiconductor manufacturers such as TSMC which are beginning to deploy such water reclamation systems still anticipate being unable to meet their water needs as their own corporate reports disclose.
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Conclusions There are no electronics without semiconductors3 and no semiconductors without secure access to large volumes of water for manufacturing them.2 At least 40 percent of all existing semiconductor facilities are located in basins projected to experience highor extremely high water stress risks under any climate scenario analyzed here for 2030 and 2040. Between 24 and 40 percent of facilities currently under construction and 4049 percent of facilities announced are in basins anticipated to be at highor extremely high water stress risk in 2030 and 2040 depending on the climate scenario considered.
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Major semiconductor manufacturing rms, such as Intel and TSMC, take water stewardship concerns seriously. Firms in the sector are making impressive progress in water use reduction techniques. Yet, no matter how dramatic those reductions are, they cannot create a situation in which the water needed for semiconductor manufacturing is simultaneously accessible to other water users (e.g., farmers; municipal drinking water). Struggles between competing interests over access to water are likely to increase under such a situation. Moreover, the network dynamics of semiconductor GPNs mean the water stress risk as it pertains to any one company is only part of the issue. Network dynamics also mean that disruptions to production at individual key nodes in the network could lead to a cascading propagation of water stress risks from regions of particularly high risk of water stress to broader portions of overall GPNs for electronics.
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