TSMC ESG - TSMC Introduces High-efficient Cooling Tower Fan, Achieving 6.54 Million kWh of Electricity Saving

Improving energy efficiency is a crucial part of TSMC’s green manufacturing strategy. In addition to developing innovative functions to optimize the energy-saving benefits of AI-powered water chiller system, the Company also collaborates with vendors to develop energy-efficient fan blades for cooling tower to effectively reduce energy consumption by 13%. As of December 2023, the Company has completed the optimization of 83 fan blades for Fab 2, Fab 3, Fab 5, Fab 6, Fab 12, Fab 15 and Advanced Backend Fab 5, and installed 65 high-efficient fan blades as standard designs for new fabs, saving a total of 6.54 million kWh of electricity and continuing to practice sustainable values.

The cooling tower is a heat removal device by using water to evaporate and carry away all the unwanted heat. When water going through the cooling tower, the fun blades will spin to suck up the air into the tower for heat exchange, and the heat dissipation effect is achieved through evaporation. The fan blades of general cooling towers are mainly made of aluminum alloy, which makes fan blades more likely to rust and have uneven surfaces when exposing to high-humidity air for a long time. These issues will increase friction with the air and cause higher energy consumption of the fan motor. To improve the energy efficiency of the cooling tower, TSMC worked with vendors to improve the fan blade structure by replacing the aluminum alloy with fiberglass reinforced plastic (FRP) and adding an epoxy resin (Epoxy) coating on the surface to improve smoothness and reduce air resistance. Also, the Company found the optimal angle of attack through computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation and wind tunnel experiments, to increase the wind receiving area and reduce turbulence, further improving the energy efficiency.

TSMC is committed to investing in green innovation and continuously expanding the energy-saving effect of the chiller system. The Company is expected to complete the optimization of 90 cooling tower fan blades for the existing fabs in 2024, saving an additional 230,000 kWh, and will continue to introduce new cooling tower fan blades to new fabs, continuously adopting green practices to achieve the goal of sustainable development.