[Samsung New Environmental Strategy] "Reducing Power Consumption of Memory Semiconductors for 2.4 Million Seoul Households"

'New Environmental Management Strategy' Announcement... "Company-wide Carbon Neutrality by 2050"
Reducing Power Consumption of Existing Hard Disks by Half with Ultra-Low Power Semiconductors
Challenging 30% Improvement in Power Consumption of 7 Major Products Including Smartphones and TVs

A pond located inside the Samsung Electronics Pyeongtaek Campus. (Photo by Samsung Electronics)

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok]

#Replacing existing HDDs (hard disk drives) in global data centers with Samsung’s data center-dedicated SSDs (solid-state drives), which consume about half the power, and upgrading server DRAM to Samsung’s next-generation DDR (double data rate) 5, can significantly reduce power consumption.

#Applying innovative energy efficiency technologies to seven major electronic products?including smartphones, TVs, refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners, PCs, and monitors?to improve the power consumption of 2030 models by about 30% compared to 2019 models, while maintaining the same performance.

On the 15th, Samsung Electronics announced its new environmental management strategy aimed at achieving company-wide carbon neutrality by 2050, drawing attention to the proposed technological innovation plans as a means of realization. The company plans a bold challenge to activate ultra-low power semiconductor manufacturing at a level equivalent to “planting trees in IT products” and to reduce home appliance power consumption?which is difficult to improve even by 1%?by about 30%.

Power Savings through 'Ultra-Low Power Semiconductors'

Samsung Electronics has identified three essential innovation technologies to achieve carbon neutrality: ▲ultra-low power semiconductors ▲ultra-energy-saving product power improvements ▲maximizing water resource recycling. This is a large-scale project encompassing Samsung’s three business divisions: DS (Device Solutions), DX (Device Experience), and MX (Mobile Experience). While it is difficult to fully implement even one, Samsung plans to accomplish all three.

For the first major task, 'ultra-low power semiconductors,' Samsung aims to achieve revolutionary power reduction through the latest memory semiconductor products such as DDR5 and SSDs. The ambition is to make a practical contribution to reducing power consumption in data centers. According to industry estimates, applying next-generation memory semiconductors compared to existing products is expected to save approximately 8.5 TWh (terawatt-hours) annually in memory power consumption at global data centers. This corresponds to about 60% of the 14.6 TWh of residential power consumption in Seoul last year, equivalent to the power usage of about 2.4 million households out of approximately 4 million in Seoul.

As a result, reducing power consumption in data centers to prepare for the explosive growth in data storage and processing energy has emerged as a key point. According to market research firm IDC, the global data volume, which was only 33 ZB (zettabytes, 1,000 trillion bytes) in 2018, is expected to increase by about 60% annually to reach 175 ZB by 2025. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), global data center power consumption in 2020 was between 200 and 250 TWh, accounting for about 1% of the world’s total electricity consumption.

Samsung Electronics believes that replacing HDDs in global data centers with Samsung’s data center-dedicated SSDs, which consume about half the power, and upgrading server DRAM to Samsung’s next-generation DDR5 will reduce power consumption and also save on heat generation power in data centers. Samsung emphasized, “We will continue developing ‘ultra-low power semiconductors’ such as high-performance SSDs dedicated to data centers and premium low-power LPDDR (low-power double data rate) 5X to further reduce power consumption.”

For example, the data center-dedicated high-performance SSD 'PM9A3 E1.S' operates based on the industry’s first 6th generation V-NAND flash. Its power efficiency supports 283 MB/s per watt (W) based on continuous write performance, which is about 50% better than the previous generation PM983a M.2 based on 5th generation V-NAND. LPDDR 5X is DRAM that can be used not only in smartphones and laptops but also in high-performance PCs and servers. It operates at about 7.5 Gbps, 1.2 times faster than the previous generation, while reducing power consumption by about 20%. Using the current cutting-edge 14nm process, innovative circuit design, and upgraded 'dynamic voltage technology,' it improves performance while lowering power consumption compared to previous generation products.

30% Power Reduction in Seven Major Products Including Phones and TVs

Samsung is also pursuing the challenge of reducing power consumption by about 30% across seven major electronic products, including smartphones and TVs. Samsung announced plans to improve the power consumption of 2030 models by an average of 30% compared to 2019 models with the same performance. The company supplies 500 million electronic products annually. Since it has already focused on developing high-efficiency products such as those rated 'Energy Efficiency Grade 1,' achieving further efficiency improvements requires strong innovation.

Measures include improving refrigerator compressor efficiency, reducing washing time in washing machines, and applying high-efficiency refrigerants to air conditioners to enhance cooling performance. Although the power consumption improvement effect of individual technologies often falls short of 1%, Samsung plans to combine these improvements to achieve the goal of a 30% reduction in power consumption.

Samsung is actively promoting the activation of its integrated connectivity platform, SmartThings. The number of countries applying the 'SmartThings Energy' service will increase from five (including Korea and the U.S.) as of the first half of the year to 32 countries soon. The goal is to increase subscribers from about 230 million to 500 million within five years. Samsung plans to promote the adoption of the HCA standard, a consortium of 13 global home appliance companies including Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, General Electric (GE), Haier, and Electrolux, by the first half of next year, and update SmartThings accordingly. Earlier, on the 2nd (local time), Han Jong-hee, head of the DX division and vice chairman, declared this year as the “first year of SmartThings” at IFA 2022, Europe’s largest home appliance exhibition.

Activating SmartThings Energy’s 'AI Saving Mode' can reduce washing machine energy consumption by up to 70% and dryer energy consumption by up to 20%. Samsung plans to increase strategic reduction rates to up to 30% for refrigerators and up to 20% for air conditioners by the end of the year. Ultimately, the goal is to help customers achieve energy self-sufficiency through solar panels and other means to realize a 'net zero home' with zero electricity bills.

In addition, Samsung will maximize resource circulation. The application of recycled resin to plastic parts used in products will be significantly expanded. The plan is to apply recycled resin to 50% of plastic parts by 2030 and to all plastic parts by 2050. The use of plastics recycled from marine waste such as discarded fishing nets, applied in Galaxy smartphones, will also be expanded. Samsung used 31,000 tons of recycled resin in 2020 and 33,000 tons last year. The cumulative usage since 2009 reaches 310,000 tons. If recycled resin is applied to half of plastic parts by 2030, usage is expected to increase more than tenfold.

Maximizing Water Resource Recycling Including in Semiconductors

Samsung Electronics operates 32 production sites worldwide. It consumes a significant amount of water as well as electricity. Last year, it used 164 million tons of water. It must reduce usage through manufacturing process improvements and establishing recycling systems. Although water reuse has increased (from 68.55 million tons in 2019 to 93.94 million tons last year), Samsung plans to expand this further. The goal is to achieve zero increase in water intake by 2030 in the DS division and to recycle 100% of water used by 2030 in the DX division.

Currently, to increase water reuse rates in manufacturing processes, each site manages water resources by categorizing them into sewage, wastewater, process water, and ultrapure water. Each site calculates monthly reuse amounts by water category and inputs the data into its own system. Furthermore, Samsung plans to equip advanced wastewater treatment technologies such as membrane and enzyme-based water treatment to 'maximize' water recycling. Membranes refer to filtration technologies that allow only desired substances to pass through, essential for seawater desalination and water recycling.

For DS division sites, Samsung plans to treat discharged water from its own wastewater treatment plants by pollution concentration and reuse it as ultrapure water. The reuse of ultrapure water increased from 15 million tons in 2019 to 22.54 million tons last year. Samsung also plans to actively reuse discharged water from nearby sewage treatment plants using technologies such as 'low molecular organic matter removal.' For DX division sites, reverse osmosis membranes and nanofiltration membranes will be applied. A new gray water system that treats and reuses water will be introduced, and water resource return projects such as local water quality improvement and river restoration will be actively operated.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.