Renewable energy a sustainable way for semiconductor companies to grow
GEORGE TOWN - Semiconductor companies in Malaysia should start looking at renewable energy in their quest to fulfill soaring global demand for chips, says Schneider Electric.
Executive vice-president for power systems and services Frederic Godemel said semiconductor output is anticipated to triple in the next decade and these companies must start looking at ways to continue their growth without impacting the environment.
"In Malaysia, energy production is still mainly fossil fuels including coal. This should be replaced with more renewable energy sources. I see it as an opportunity for the industry to partner with electrical companies as well as relevant parties to get more renewable energy supply.
"This is a good challenge for Malaysia and the industry. It may not be a top priority today, but it will be in 10 years time because we are starting to see large corporations in other parts of the world looking at green energy,” he told Bernama on the sidelines of the Semicon Southeast Asia 2023.
Godemel said Schneider Electric does offer solutions to help the industry lower their carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions such as digitising the infrastructure of semiconductor processes that would subsequently result in 20-30 per cent higher efficiency.
Other than that, Schneider Electric also has software that could help its customers manage their various sources of emission while also providing guidance to the company in their sustainability journey.
"In many operations, there is a waste of energy between the production and the usage, that is where we can act on the site helping companies. We have all the solutions, from strategising to measuring, and to optimising.
"We can help the industry to build a reasonable plan to achieve higher production with lower or at least the same amount of CO2 emission,” he added.
He said Malaysia being the seventh largest exporter of semiconductors in the world with a market share of seven per cent, there is great potential for Malaysia to look into the possibilities of more supply of renewable energy resources.
He said the global semiconductor industry is growing rapidly with the industry poised to become a trillion-dollar industry by 2030. Renewable energy is the solution for companies to get the additional energy supply to match their output with global demand without impacting the environment.
"And if you do not do that, this is what happened in certain industries where there is a shortage of chips and they cannot manufacture.
"What is happening now is that a shortage of chips has global consequences and can be penalising to their businesses,” he added.
The three-day conference until today, themed ‘Boosting Agility and Resiliency for the Electronics Supply Chain’, was organised by Semi, the global industry association serving the semiconductor and electronics manufacturing and design supply chain, with its strategic partners the Malaysian Investment Development Authority and InvestPenang. - BERNAMA
