Christoph Hammerschmidt Courtesy of EE Times Europe (11/05/2008 3:26 AM EST)

MUNICH, Germany — Triggered by the financial crisis, semiconductor companies are increasing their efforts and commitment to more efficient and environmentally friendly design and manufacture of devices.

There was already focus on the issue before the economic downturn as it dawned that electronic equipment suppliers, and thus the semiconductors sector, must play their part in strategies to help reduce CO2 emissions.

The issue is expected to be one of the highlights in the series of panel discussions planned to take place at this month's Electronica fair - see below.

Most experts, worldwide, concur that climate change has been triggered by man-made factors. The world's energy production (and consumption) is expected to double by the year 2050, and CO2 emissions are rising in lockstep. Against this perspective, industrialists and politicians are battling over the right way to deal with the issue. "It certainly will not be cost-effective to refrain from taking measures to protect climate," warned Peter Lscher, President and CEO of Siemens AG, in an address to industry managers late September.

Most countries have already agreed to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. The Kyoto protocol, for example, demands EU countries reduce the CO2 emissions through 2012 by 5.2 percent annually.

Electronic devices, equipment and systems can certainly play a leading role in this quest. Even organizations that are not known to be a slave to the industry, such as Greenpeace, stress the sector has much to contribute. "Compared to the Reference Scenario, efficiency measures avoid the generation of about 12.800 Terawatt per year," said the environmental lobby group in a recent report.

Semiconductors are already playing an important role on the power generation and distribution side to improve energy efficiency. For instance, in transmitting electric energy across large distances, current state of the art is HVDC transmission (high voltage direct current), with high-power thyristors playing a crucial role. This technology typically reduces transmission losses by 40 percent, compared to standard ac transmission.

Another approach to saving energy and improving the overall efficiency in energy distribution is the "smart grid". This approach describes a set of properties that the existing "dumb" grid has to be enhanced with in order to facilitate the integration of small, decentralized power generation units such as photovoltaic generators. Since the smart grid inherently needs greatly enhanced communications capabilities, it will be based largely on intelligent semiconductor functions.

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