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Report: TSMC and UMC are Trucking in Water Amid Shortages

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Ok, so for those that don't live in Taiwan and that don't understand the local watery supply issues, here's a short primer.

Taiwan is an island, not a particularly big one, nor tiny. That said, Taiwan relies entirely on man made reservoirs for the water supply, as there are very few natural lakes due to the geography of Taiwan.
The highest mountain in Taiwan is nearly 4,000m high, with the central and eastern parts of Taiwan mainly being highly elevated mountain terrain. This has the effect that the rainfall is quickly washed out into the ocean.
As such, the government has built a range of reservoirs over the years to try and prevent the rainwater from rushing out into the ocean straight away.
Unfortunately some of these reservoirs have been filling up with silt and other sediment due to illegal construction, as well as dumping of unwanted materials and obviously some natural deposits. This has lead to the actual volume of several reservoirs to be lowered quite significantly.
On top of this, there were almost no typhoons hitting Taiwan last year, which is a big source of freshwater. This past winter and spring has also been unusually dry.
As such, there has been a water shortage in the central and southern parts of Taiwan since late last year.
It doesn't help that people are clueless when it come to water conservation here (dumb example, our ex neighbours had a sprinkler system in their 15-ish square meter garden, that was running on a timer, so even if it was pissing down, it would kick in) and that the water pipes are old and leaky, partially thanks to constant quakes hitting the island.
There's no shortage of water in the northern part of the island, as yet though, but there are also very few chip fabs up here.
It should be noted that water shortages happen every few years in Taiwan, so this is nothing really new. The government is also looking at building more reservoirs.
Note that Taiwan does have reverse osmosis facilities for purifying seawater, but as pointed out, these are not free to operate.

Anyone interested in seeing the current water levels in the various reservoirs can have a look here.

An additional note is that at least TSMC claim that they recycle most of their water they use for chip production, although I guess some of it is being lost somewhere, so they have to add some more into the system at some point.

Neat

Snow levels here

;)
 

TheLostSwede

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Neat

Snow levels here

;)
Taiwan did actually get a bit of snow this past winter, for like a day or two on mountains over 600m high...
Some of the 2,000m plus mountains had snow for a bit longer though. Still doesn't produce all that much water when it melts though.
 

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Pykrete is one of the coolest inventions that never panned out.

Didn't read the thread? Reaching 100% water recycling is really, really difficult after all.

I was under the impress you could just boil salt water, the evaporation gets trapped is healthy water, and your left with salt and other stuff after all boiled, I believe this is how those places work... but I am honestly not sure. I don't understand why someone hasn't figured a way to scale that up yet, especially middle east countries with access to massive solar panel grids and sunlight non-stop to power such facilities.
 

TheLostSwede

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I was under the impress you could just boil salt water, the evaporation gets trapped is healthy water, and your left with salt and other stuff after all boiled, I believe this is how those places work... but I am honestly not sure. I don't understand why someone hasn't figured a way to scale that up yet, especially middle east countries with access to massive solar panel grids and sunlight non-stop to power such facilities.
Because you waste a lot.
This is what the pros use.

Keep in mind that the fabs don't use what you and I call water, but rather this.
 
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The lost Swede has been found in Taiwan, doing thesis on water levels in the island country please alert authorities in Stockholm.
 

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Because you waste a lot.
This is what the pros use.

Keep in mind that the fabs don't use what you and I call water, but rather this.

I find it hard to believe there is a step above reverse osmosis, since reverse osmosis must show 0 parts per million. lol very cool though, learn something new every day.

The lost Swede has been found in Taiwan, doing thesis on water levels in the island country please alert authorities in Stockholm.

:roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll:
 
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With all the profit they make, billions and billions and BILLIONS, do you think I care about such a pathetic excuse? No, they can easily afford it. Fewer excuses, more output.
its not just $$ cost, environmental agencies will get all up tight about where all the brine goes and rightfully so.

fresh water has and will always be a scare resource, unless you live by N.A.'s great lakes; 21% of world's FW.
 
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How is that outsourcing working out for everyone?! :D
 
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It's not easy to build reverse osmosis sites. The problem with reverse osmosis is the brine discharge from the concentrated salt output. The brine discharge gets dumped back into the ocean, the area around there would kill any sea creatures from the increased salt. And the power usage to run those buildings.

On my boat, I have a reverse osmosis machine that makes 1.5 gallons per hour. The power draw is 5 amps at 12v, about 60 watts. Now scale that up to a huge silicone factory, you would need huge amounts of power l.
 
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It's not easy to build reverse osmosis sites. The problem with reverse osmosis is the brine discharge from the concentrated salt output. The brine discharge gets dumped back into the ocean, the area around there would kill any sea creatures from the increased salt. And the power usage to run those buildings.

On my boat, I have a reverse osmosis machine that makes 1.5 gallons per hour. The power draw is 5 amps at 12v, about 60 watts. Now scale that up to a huge silicone factory, you would need huge amounts of power l.
They are investing more into solar power so who knows what could come of that., but they'd still prolly outsource that...
 

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