Intel Leadership Reportedly Reacting to Rising Energy Costs in Ireland

[T0@st]

Intel executives are reportedly dealing with a major challenge that affects its portfolio of European manufacturing facilities—a recent RTÉ News article placed focus on Team Blue's Fab 34 site, located in Leixlip, Ireland. Energy costs are climbing across the globe, but inside sources believe that company leaders have expressed concern regarding the cost of powering the Irish facility. Last week's report posits that senior Intel figures are committed to keeping Fab 34 alive for a while—seemingly unaffected by a widespread cost-cutting initiative—this high-volume production site remains: "critical to its European operation for at least the next seven years."

Intel is reportedly already engaged in talks with the Irish government—likely negotiating over strategies that will lower its local energy bills in County Kildare. Additionally, other channels are—supposedly—being explored via the EU Chips Act. RTÉ News gathered comments from unnamed senior sources at the recently concluded Davos World Economic Forum—one individual stated that Ireland's (advantageous) lower labor costs are sharply offset by the higher cost of energy. The report claims that Team Blue: "estimates that in Ireland energy costs are 15 cent per kilowatt-hour, around double that in other markets where Intel operates." Fab 34's operating costs have been compared to similarly-equipped facilities in the USA and Israel. Executive sources believe that Ireland-specific problems stem from infrastructure backlogs in the renewable sector, and the fixed cost of delivering energy from offshore wind farms—the latter tends to pass expenses on to customers.



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[AnotherReader]

As a point of comparison, what are the electricity costs for TSMC in Taiwan? Apparently, most electricity in Israel is generated using fossil fuels so they can't be great for pricing either.

 

[bonehead123]

Translation:

"Temba, his arms wide".......

'nuff said

 

[Smartcom5]

Isn't it quite ironic, that of all things the market player, who always loved to shove the bill after sales of their very own utterly thirsty product-stack over to the consumer,
now has the audacity to start complaining about the costs of energy and slowly but surely begins to choke on their own very power-bills!?

I don't know about you, but for me it looks, as if Carmen (or were her name Karma? I really don't remember),
that Carmen just loves to play circumstantial Intel like a fiddle and enjoys its suffering, always eager to kick another time and put the boot in!

Then people say, that Germans with their Schadenfreud would have no sense of humour!
I beginning to think, that Karma might be secretly German … xD

tl;dr: Things life does we love: Telling jokes in real-life, to light up a rainy day!

 

[Wirko]

A few more Intels like that, and the human race will have to build a Dyson sphere to hoover up all the energy (which still won't be enough). More billions spent!

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

They should upgrade their workstations to ryzen 7000 series chips, that'll fix em up!

 

[kondamin]

If Ireland has something its offshore wind potential a lot of opportunities for tidal power.
now that the us is scrapping their offshore projects a things should be able to move faster in the EU.

 

[JustBenching]

Isn't it quite ironic, that of all things the market player, who always loved to shove the bill after sales of their very own utterly thirsty product-stack over to the consumer,
now has the audacity to start complaining about the costs of energy and slowly but surely begins to choke on their own very power-bills!?

The vast majority (Like, very fast) of intel sales are locked chips working at 35 and 65w.

 

[Wirko]

This was taken from Intel Ireland's report for 2023:

4,235,531 GJ is no joke. That's 134 MW of average consumption, or about 3 million office PCs, monitors not included, running on idle 24/7/365. Maybe they can capture some of the waste heat for greenhouses or something.

 

[Caring1]

So Intel uses Ireland as a tax dodge, then they whinge about power costs?

 

[kondamin]

So Intel uses Ireland as a tax dodge, then they whinge about power costs?

a bit, but they are running a fab in ireland too so it's not that it's just for tax purposes that they are there, like say Microsoft

 

[_roman_]

I would be very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very happy to pay only 15 Eurocents for a kilowatthour. That is very, very, very, very cheap

the pre *censored* day before *censored* are long gone where it was around 6 eurocents for a kilowatthour.

*censored* ... respecting the forum rules about no politics - flame topics. It was much cheaper before - long gone time period.

#4

Schadenfreude - you are happy about someone who hurt has a bad day.
"wer den schaden hat, hat für den spott nicht zu sorgen". ...

wer den Schaden hat, braucht für den Spott nicht zu sorgen – Wiktionary

de.wiktionary.org

loosely translated. When someone experience bad luck, he has not to worry about others commenting with very bad comments.

 

[Caring1]

I would be very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very happy to pay only 15 Eurocents for a kilowatthour. That is very, very, very, very cheap

the pre *censored* day before *censored* are long gone where it was around 6 eurocents for a kilowatthour.

*censored* ... respecting the forum rules about no politics - flame topics. It was much cheaper before - long gone time period.

My daily electricity costs are around $10 per day according to my Bills, and that's with me being concerned about power and trying to keep it down.
The rate we pay here is ridiculous.

 

[Wirko]

I would be very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very happy to pay only 15 Eurocents for a kilowatthour. That is very, very, very, very cheap

the pre *censored* day before *censored* are long gone where it was around 6 eurocents for a kilowatthour.

*censored* ... respecting the forum rules about no politics - flame topics. It was much cheaper before - long gone time period.

12 Euro cents in Dec 2024 here in Slovenia, flat rate, and even slightly lower in Jan 2025. But rising fixed cost, as if they want us to consume more, not less. It's so good when you live close to this (not too close anyway). I don't know if we're buying electric power from there but it doesn't matter much. Power in this region is generally transported from east to west. By the way, the open-pit coal mines in westernmost regions of Germany are very, very, very, very, very, very big, and what is the coal turned into if not cheap electricity?

#4

Schadenfreude - you are happy about someone who hurt has a bad day.

Granted, #4 wrote Schadenfreud. Must be that evil psychoanalyst.

 

[Smartcom5]

@Wirko @_roman_ That German Schadenfreude is not about wishing someone bad luck!
Schadenfreude mainly means, that someone who up until then, always got away with bad acting and evil doings, finally gets its just dealing.

So German schadenfreude is distinctly not about wishing someone bad luck just because… Picturing it that way is not doing Schadenfreude justice!
Schadenfreude is the mere glee being felt, when someone else gets finally a meet-up with his/her karma and justice ultimately prevails.

Big difference, there's no psychotic side to it – Just relief, a feeling of gratitude and ultimately glee for when righteousness finally wins the day and what is generally seen as bad people finally get their come-uppance.

Schadenfreude can be felt by everyone across the globe. The Germans just ultimately have coined a catchy word for it, that's basically it.

 

[nageme]

As a point of comparison, what are the electricity costs for TSMC in Taiwan?

Yeah, the article should've mentioned power costs elsewhere, for comparison, particularly where Intel has plants.

Apparently, most electricity in Israel is generated using fossil fuels so they can't be great for pricing either.

The data there seems strange, and supposedly from 2017. Coal as primary, for a natural gas producer? A more detailed and up-to-date source claims differently.
And in Ireland, while there's lots of wind-sourced power, I didn't quickly find a clear answer to whether wind is cheaper than gas. Offshore in particular seems more expensive.

But anyway, the main question is cost, and particularly to consumers like Intel. I wonder if they might be getting special rates.