IRA and CHIPs spurring $1B Solar plant in Oklahoma, $4B Chip plant in California

TI just finished the first of four planned 300 mm Fabs, this one was in Richardson, TX. Their second has broken ground also in Sherman, Texas. Additionally, they are spending $5 of an eventually $11Billion on their Lehi, Utah test facility.

Intel is building another enormous 300mm fab in Chandler. They have also begun to level ground on Phase 1 of an eventual $20 Billion Fab and Design complex in Ohio.

TSMC is building a $6 Billion MASSIVE fab north of Phoenix.

Global Foundries is building a $5 Billion 300mm fab in Sherman, TX.

Be cynical all you want, but construction is under way. I know because I work at a smaller company and it is literally impossible to hire people for our own expansion because all of the skilled workers have been hired by Intel, TI, Global Foundries and Samsung.

The problem is that all of the materials needed for final assembly and even most test is still being done in Asia, with a large majority in China.

Chips Act was a nice start, but woefully inadequate for its stated goal.

BTW, there are smaller semiconductor companies that are contracting with the government to perform final assembly and test in the United States so our most secretive of secretive chips do not need to be sent to Asia. That has to expand to commercial chips.

 

We will probably get cleaner air, but global warming is out of the bag, and won’t be easily reversed any time soon. All we can do is perhaps slow the rate of increase.

 

Thanks for the info and extremely glad to hear these facilities are actually being constructed.

 

That is 100% total and complete BULL-#*!# of an explanation.

I cannot and copy all of the BS in this article, but TSMC is full of it. Here is the brief list

1. They wanted 2x the money from the CHIPS act to build the fab - US said no.
2. They claim US workers are too expensive, they are bringing more and more in from Taiwan.
3. They are massively cutting corners - there have been MULTIPLE accidents at the fab site.
4. They are way, way over budget.

Arizona has one of the LARGEST semiconductor work forces in the nation. NXP, ON Semiconductor, Intel, MicroChip are just some of the companies that have multiple fabs in Arizona.

TSMC Arizona chip plant over budget and behind schedule; US workers blamed

 

My grandfather born in 1910 was in technology to some degree his whole life. Loved the idea of what technology could do. Had a radio repair shop in 30s and 40s in Chicago. Multiple tv repair and newspapers in various cities in Florida. Last one was Kwikfix Tv near downtown Ft. Myers; my Uncle added PCs to the business up through the early 2000s and after 50+ years finally closed the doors. In the 50s he ran for Mayor and I found a very tattered color poster from his campaign; his vision of Dowtown Ft. Myers looked like the Jetsons. Same weird buildings. To your point, he said he’d like to be put into a long sleep and awakened every 50-100 years to see the changes. He was very optimistic about the future. I always asked my mom; did he ever think he might wake up to find a Nuclear wasteland? She said never thought that would really happen.

 

Are you just stringing words together without thinking about them? Cold fusion is not really contemplated to be net positive in the near or mid future. Now net positive energy fusion is thought to be nearer to happening. Building new solar and wind power is cheaper than buying fuel for an established coal plant now. The hold back now is energy storage. Batteries have been getting better and more efficient almost on a logarithmic speed. Breakthroughs are coming.

 

If humanity doesn’t suffer a mass extinction event in the next century there is 0.00% we will still be using fossil fuels at that point

 

Ah that’s why I said unless we master cold fusion it’s not happening in the next 100years.
While some only think about US electricity needs China and India will have huge increases in demands for electricity. We will be burning fossil fuels for the next 50 years easy unless there is some massive tech breakthrough.

 

100 years is a long time but we need huge advances.
The rest of the non developed world will need power demand is expected to explode.
It’s expected to grow by 50% just in the next 30 years…

We can ramp up renewables but they won’t keep up with demand unless there is some magic to be made.

World energy demand will increase 50% by 2050: EIA

World energy demand will increase 50% by 2050: EIA

 

Think about how much the world has changed in the last 100 years. It’s only speeding up. Innovation will satisfy any increase in energy demand (assuming we don’t kill ourselves).

 

You really need to look at the cost curves of solar and wind energy. Given how much things changed in 20 years (to where both of those forms are now cheaper than fossil fuels), it would be rather stupid to presume that we won't see significant advances to each in 80 years.

 

Net positive fusion is what we need. Cold fusion may happen but we are remarkably close to sustainable energy positive fusion. And solar can produce all the energy we can use we just need a way to store it for when it’s dark.

 

While I won’t underestimate the possibilities with advancing our abilities to be more efficient both in use and production, the massive increased demand is a consideration that you all seem to be ignoring.

Hell our grid loses something like 50% just from production to use in the transmission.

I’m not saying it’s impossible but we would need a huge leap in both production and transmission just in the US to keep up with demand. That’s not even considering the massive increase in demand the rest of the world will have.

 

I am absolutely not ignoring it. There isn't a cap on the amount of wind or solar you can utilize. And transmission loss isn't less for fossil fuel burning, so that seems completely irrelevant to the discussion here.

 

I recently saw an article that with the current rate of solar expansion in TX the grid probably won’t be able to keep up with it and you could be looking at loss rates as high as 20% by around 2035. I’m not exactly sure the full context of that but it probably doesn’t help that TX has its own grid so if it produces excess amounts during peak times it has nowhere else to go.

Texas solar and wind are setting records, and the state's grid can't handle it

However battery storage could help mitigate that.

 

Your Depleted EV Battery Pack Could Power the Grid after Sunset

Interesting article on how EV batteries can be reused for solar electricity grid storage.

 

It’s happening just watch and get your popcorn. It’s going to be glorious as long as we don’t let the luddites take over. The Republican Party is the party of the Luddites now.

 

Of particular interest to me is that apparently the bulk of the batteries they use are from Nissan Leafs. Nissan's thermal management system in terms of cooling for those battery packs was pathetic.