From the Pragmatic Environmentalist of New York
In 2022, Micron introduced its plans to construct the biggest semiconductor fabrication facility within the historical past of the US. Micron intends to take a position as much as $100 billion over the following 20-plus years to assemble a brand new chip fab plant in Clay, New York. A current letter to the Editor of the Syracuse Submit-Commonplace posed the questions: I’m wondering why the residents of our state have to be the only suppliers of electrical energy to Micron? Shouldn’t Micron at the very least share in producing electrical energy? The creator went on to make suggestions which might be inconsistent with the power density of wind and photo voltaic that relate to the viability of the enterprise. This publish paperwork the response I submitted to that letter.
I’m following developments at Micron as a result of the ability goes to be constructed inside 5 miles of my house. I additionally observe the Local weather Management & Group Safety Act (Local weather Act) due to its impacts on New York. The letter pertains to each pursuits. The opinions expressed on this publish don’t mirror the place of any of my earlier employers or every other group I’ve been related to, these feedback are mine alone.
Overview
The Local weather Act established a New York “Internet Zero” goal (85% discount and 15% offset of emissions) by 2050. It consists of an interim 2030 discount goal of a 40% discount by 2030 and a requirement that each one electrical energy generated be “zero-emissions” by 2040. The Local weather Motion Council (CAC) is accountable for making ready the Scoping Plan that outlines how you can “obtain the State’s daring clear power and local weather agenda.” In short, that plan is to affect the whole lot attainable utilizing zero-emissions electrical energy. The Integration Evaluation ready by the New York State Power Analysis and Growth Authority (NYSERDA) and its consultants quantifies the impression of the electrification methods. That materials was used to develop the Draft Scoping Plan. After a year-long evaluate, the Scoping Plan suggestions have been finalized on the finish of 2022. In 2023 the Scoping Plan suggestions are imagined to be applied by means of regulation, PSC orders, and laws. Environmental allowing is a part of these implementation considerations.
Micron Chip Fab Faciliity
The outline within the Environmental Evaluation Type states:
Micron intends to take a position roughly $100 billion over the following 20 years to construct a modern semiconductor manufacturing campus within the City of Clay on the roughly 1,400-acre White Pine Commerce Park. Micron intends to accumulate the White Pine Commerce Park from the Onondaga County Industrial Growth Company (OCIDA) and assemble a campus for 4 (4) reminiscence fabrication crops (also referred to as Fabs) on the positioning. Every Fab, and their associated services, would take roughly three to 5 years to assemble. Inside fit-out of every Fab would proceed after the constructing is full, leading to steady web site exercise over roughly 20 years. It’s anticipated that the primary two (2) Fabs could be full inside roughly 10 years, and the second two (2) Fabs could be full roughly 10 years thereafter. Expert commerce labor can be employed all through the 20-year interval. Every Fab would occupy roughly 1.2 million sq. ft (sf) of land and include approx. 600,000 sf of cleanroom area, 290,000 sf of unpolluted room assist area, and 250,000 sf of administrative area. Every set of two fabs could be supported by approx. 360,000 sf of central utility buildings, 200,000 sf of warehouse area, and 200,000 sf of product testing area housed in separate buildings.
Micron ought to share in producing energy for its chip fab letter
Scott Love from Jamesville, NY despatched a letter to the editor proposing a number of actions for the facility wants of the ability.
After studying the article “Leaders: Grid should develop for Micron, others” within the Dec. 3, 2023, Enterprise part of The Submit-Commonplace, I’m wondering why the residents of our state have to be the only suppliers of electrical energy to Micron? Shouldn’t Micron at the very least share in producing electrical energy? The acreage lined by the Micron facility roofs needs to be used for producing solar energy. As well as, hydro mills needs to be thought-about for the just about 40 miles of pipeline to and from Lake Ontario. On-site wind energy must also be thought-about.
If Micron is to be thought-about a pacesetter to the way forward for our group, then it’s time for them to be forward-thinking of their planning.
There are a number of factors raised which might be ripe for remark on this letter. I submitted the next in response:
Scott Love lately prompt that Micron ought to share the duty to offer the electrical energy needed for the ability. I agree with the thought however not his prompt strategy.
He prompt that the ability use rooftop photo voltaic, take into consideration on-site wind energy, and think about hydro within the pipeline from Lake Ontario. That received’t work. The power density of photo voltaic and wind is low. Even when the whole Micron footprint of 1,400 acres was lined with photo voltaic panels, panels would offer lower than 1% of the facility wants. Wind requires much more area so would offer much less of the power wanted. Lake Ontario is decrease than the Micron web site so the water have to be pumped as much as the ability.
I consider a co-generation facility utilizing pure fuel or nuclear energy is acceptable. For starters, it will remove the necessity for power storage when the wind will not be blowing or solar not shining. On-site technology is sensible as a result of it reduces line loss and waste warmth produced can be utilized for heating and manufacturing processes. Small modular nuclear reactors will not be but commercially obtainable, however the facility may very well be designed to make use of that know-how sooner or later. Within the meantime, a combined-cycle fuel turbine facility may very well be constructed. Carbon dioxide may very well be minimized by utilizing it in on-site greenhouses that convert it to meals.
If Micron goes to be part of our group, it’s time for everybody to be ahead considering and pragmatic about how finest to make them aggressive.
The rest of this text summarizes the general problem of Micron power necessities and particular considerations with the letter.
Micron Power Use
In August I ready an article that described the response of Richard Ellenbogen to the huge quantity of power wanted by the ability. I correspond with him frequently as a result of he has spent quite a lot of time evaluating the Local weather Act net-zero transition. I lately described his complete presentation on the transition. Once I let him know that the unique projection for power use that might be the identical because the state of Vermont has been expanded to be the identical as Vermont and New Hampshire he responded with the next:
I’ve been utilizing the Micron facility for example of how the Local weather Act is definitely going to extend NY State’s carbon footprint as a result of transmitting all of that power to the Micron web site, as a lot as is utilized by the state of Vermont, over lengthy distances was going to end in an quantity of misplaced power on the wires that might function 1-3/4 Cornell Universities. One in all my readers despatched me an replace of power use as a result of now it’s projected that the Clay advanced will eat 16 billion kilowatt-hours of electrical energy per yr, as a lot as Vermont and New Hampshire mixed, or 16,000 Gigawatt Hours yearly (16 Tera-watt hours). That’s double the unique projections and the concept that this may very well be supported with renewable technology is laughable. 16,000 GWh is an 11% improve in NY State electrical utilization simply associated to the one facility. The road loss may even double to eat the output of about a 100 megawatt fossil gasoline plant below steady operation.
To place the Micron facility’s utilization into perspective, in its final full yr of operation the two Gigawatt Indian Level nuclear plant generated 16.3 Tera-watt hours so the Micron facility will must be supported by a 2 Gigawatt fossil gasoline or nuclear plant on web site or 2.1 Gigawatts of technology off web site, 5% extra. NY State’s coverage makes completely no sense. To run the Micron facility would require utilizing about 4 GW of the projected 9 GW of offshore wind to assist the plant or 16 GW of photo voltaic arrays protecting 128,000 acres (80 acres per 10 MW) or 200 Sq. miles. NY State has 7 million acres of farmland so photo voltaic arrays to assist the Micron facility would use nearly 2% of the farmland within the state and would additionally require an infinite quantity of battery storage, the price of which might enormously exceed the price of a nuclear plant on web site. A mixed cycle producing plant on web site could be about 75% lower than the price of the nuclear plant. Each the mixed cycle fuel plant and the nuclear plant on-site provide the choice of recovering the waste warmth and utilizing it within the plant to make Micron much more power environment friendly. With regard to the photo voltaic and wind, NY State is having main difficulties getting all of their renewable initiatives completed due to price points and interconnection points, not to mention including this gigantic lead weight to the Camel’s again.
Micron Sustainability
The truth sheet for the proposed plan describes sustainability initiatives deliberate:
- Obtain 100% water reuse, recycling and restoration.
- Use 100% renewable electrical energy on the new facility.
- Use inexperienced infrastructure and sustainable constructing attributes for the development of the brand new fab to realize Management in Power and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold standing.
- Mitigate and management greenhouse fuel emissions (GHG) for the brand new facility.
- Incorporate power effectivity measures.
- Make the most of inexperienced hydrogen – hydrogen fashioned by means of electrolysis powered by renewable electrical energy, with out GHG emissions – to the extent possible to displace/exchange pure fuel and grey hydrogen consumption.
- Undertake measures to cut back and keep away from waste technology and obtain zero hazardous waste to landfill.
I’ve been requested whether or not I believe this facility will ever get constructed out as proposed. Whereas I hope that it really works out my skepticism will increase in direct proportion to the variety of commitments to politically appropriate narratives. This sustainability truth sheet is worrisome in that regard. The viability of this facility hinges on its capability to offer cost-competitive chips that require an power intensive course of. The Local weather Act goes to lift power costs and have an effect on that metric. Contemplate these pledges relative to aggressive viability.
This chip fab plant will use monumental quantities of water. Final summer season it was disclosed that the environmental evaluation anticipated that when the plant is totally fitted out that 40 million gallons of water per day could be wanted. This might require a brand new 54” pipeline from Lake Ontario to the ability. It’s not clear how that’s in keeping with the 100% water reuse, recycling, and restoration pledge except the presumption that discharging to the Oneida River that leads to Lake Ontario the place it comes again to the plan is the 100% recycling mechanism. In my opinion I’m superb with that.
The 100% renewable electrical energy pledge is a competitiveness drawback, nonetheless. Ellenbogen’s response proven above addresses lots of the points. In his current presentation he identified that as a part of the dedication NYPA has dedicated to allocating 140 MW of hydro technology to Micron. The issue with that’s that it doesn’t symbolize new hydro. That’s simply re-labelling the “zero-emissions” attribute from anyone else to Micron for that energy.
I’ve reservations concerning the remaining pledges. In the end, pledging to fulfill advantage signaling sustainability targets may improve power prices which I fear may have an effect on the viability of the ability. I’ve to consider that behind the scenes Micron and the State are going to have to deal with the tradeoffs of added prices for these pledges.
The pledge to make use of inexperienced hydrogen fashioned by means of electrolysis powered by renewable electrical energy, with out GHG emissions caters on to the Local weather Motion Council. This one may have main monetary results. Notice that the caveat “to the extent possible to displace/exchange pure fuel and grey hydrogen consumption”, is the one occasion of their sustainability truth sheet the place there may be any trace that these aspirational targets is probably not possible.
The pledge to make use of inexperienced infrastructure and sustainable constructing attributes for the development of the brand new fab to realize Management in Power and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold standing is pandering s effectively. So long as these efforts cut back power consumption this advantage sign won’t impression the competitiveness of the ability.
Providing to mitigate and management greenhouse fuel emissions (GHG) for the brand new facility is okay however there are laws which might be going to require than anyway.
Incorporating power effectivity measures is one other pledge. So long as these efforts cut back power consumption that may cut back prices and is widespread sense strategy to including to viability.
The ultimate pledge to “undertake measures to cut back and keep away from waste technology and obtain zero hazardous waste to landfill” most likely is sensible financially and provides viability worth.
Documentation for my Letter
Love proposed that the ability use rooftop photo voltaic, take into consideration on-site wind energy, and think about hydro within the pipeline from Lake Ontario. He doesn’t perceive the size of power required or the idea of power density. The power density of photo voltaic and wind is low. Utilizing the aforementioned evaluation by Ellenbogen I calculated that even when the whole Micron footprint of 1,400 acres was lined with photo voltaic panels, they would offer lower than 1% of the facility wants as a result of it takes quite a lot of area to assemble power from the solar. It is perhaps counter intuitive however Ellenbogen and I each discovered references from federal companies that stated wind services require much more area to generate the identical quantity of power. On account of area issues, I couldn’t level out that photo voltaic and wind sources on the facility web site are unlikely to be significantly robust relative to different websites in New York as a result of the positioning is within the lake-effect cloud belt and the realm is flat. I anticipate that the ability footprint would doubtless produce even much less of the power wants than projected utilizing state averages. One other level I couldn’t make is that on-site manufacturing would want to offer power storage to be helpful.
The proposal to place hydro within the pipeline from Lake Ontario is laughable. Lake Ontario is decrease than the Micron web site so the water have to be pumped as much as the ability. That strategy is an instance of a perpetual movement machine. Ellenbogen additionally identified that even when it was downhill, do they actually suppose {that a} 54″ diameter water pipe may put a dent within the power wanted? Micron’s 16.2 TWh will use the equal to 60% of all the Hydro within the state or 26.8 TWh. Micron is supposed to make use of 10 million gallons per day after recycling with a 54″ pipe. That corresponds to 7000 gallons per minute. The Robert Moses / Lewiston Pumping Station makes use of 750,000 gallons per second or 45 million gallons per minute. That may be 6500 instances as a lot.
Ellenbogen and I independently determined that co-generation could be essentially the most applicable on-site power supply. We consider a co-generation facility utilizing pure fuel or nuclear energy is acceptable. The Ellenbogen presentation proposed permitting Micron Applied sciences to construct a 2 GW mixed cycle plant on their property. He factors out that with technology on-site, the thermal power may very well be used on the plant and the five hundred GWh of annual line loss can be eradicated.
There are two decisions for technology. Small modular nuclear reactors will not be but commercially obtainable, however the facility may very well be designed to make use of that know-how sooner or later. Within the meantime, a combined-cycle fuel turbine facility may very well be constructed. The draw back of a pure fuel co-generation plant is that it’s going to emit CO2. One of many unresolved Local weather Motion Council questions is whether or not such a gas-fired turbine that features carbon seize and sequestration could be allowed. Based on the zealots, there nonetheless could be emissions and the regulation says zero emissions. Ellenbogen prompt utilizing greenhouses to cut back CO2 emissions. Utilizing the CO2 in them to boost progress captures carbon within the crops and waste warmth from generators to heat them would tick off the domestically sourced produce goal and I’m positive inventive accounting evaluating native produce to the produce shipped from abroad may declare GHG emission reductions. .
Conclusion
The event of Micron inside the Local weather Act framework can be take a look at of pragmatic environmentalism. The tradeoff between Local weather Act absolutism, i.e., demanding nothing lower than zero, with the additional prices related to that strategy versus the necessity to maintain the Micron facility in New York aggressive with the worldwide chip market is a crucial substantive problem. Nevertheless, a lot of the Local weather Act is model over substance. The press releases to this point speak a classy sport about being inexperienced however the strategy to creating them look “inexperienced” is a merely shuffling attributes from present sources. Ellenbogen and I consider that we should always allow them to be inexperienced in actuality with excessive effectivity technology that lowers power prices to make them extra aggressive with out faking it. For all of the speak of jobs related to the power transition if the power transition makes the Micron facility unable to compete on the world market then there can be an infinite hit on jobs.
Power density is the rationale that on-site wind and photo voltaic technology would solely be advantage signaling. The world merely can’t generate sufficient electrical energy to be significant. I’ve little question that environmental activists can be upset that I like to recommend power dense pure fuel or nuclear cogeneration that may very well be put in on the footprint. Nevertheless, if Micron goes to be part of our group, it’s time for everybody to be ahead considering and pragmatic about how finest to make them aggressive.
