Climate Change and Energy Management

▪ ChipMOS Energy Policy

 

Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)

Climate change has become a common challenge for global enterprises to promote sustainable development. To control the global warming within no more than 2 ºC and affect the opportunities and risks implied in enterprise capacity expansion and market opportunities are the challenges that enterprises must face up to and prepare in advance. ChipMOS is well aware of the importance of corporate action and shoulders the heavy responsibility of environmental protection. We refer to the framework of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) issued by the Financial Stability Board (FSB), identify the management of ChipMOS climate change risks and opportunities, and further have a comprehensive understanding of the impact of climate change.

 

▼TCFD Framework

 

Identification of Climate Risk / Opportunity

ChipMOS ESG Committee members have held four meetings since 2021 to discuss in-depth risks and opportunities related to climate change. Taking TCFD as the guiding principle, the risk topics cover transformation risk and entity management risk, and summarize the risk categories such as regulations and policies, market / technology, and operation interruption, there are 48 carbon risk items in total, including 4 major carbon risks and 7 moderate carbon risks; 21 carbon opportunities, including 3 major carbon opportunities; 7 moderate carbon opportunities, total 69 risk and opportunity items.

 

We rank the risks and opportunities according to the possible time of risk impact (short-term, medium-term and long-term), impact degree factors (finance, operation / manpower, law and goodwill), and finally identify four major carbon risks and three major carbon opportunities, for total seven major risks and opportunities, assess the potential financial impact, and develop relevant countermeasures and countermeasures, so as to mitigate the impacts of climate risks and grasp future business opportunities.

 

 

GHG Inventory

ChipMOS actively responds to the global trend of carbon reduction, brings mitigation and adaptation of climate change into important issues in operation management, and sets the Environmental Safety, Health and Energy Management Committee as the authority and responsibility function to promote carbon management issues. Since 2009, each fab has independently implemented inventory, established a GHG emission inventory, and identified key GHG emission sources in the production process for management. We conduct verification every year in accordance with ISO 14064-1 to ensure data quality and provide credible carbon management information to stakeholders. In 2020, the planned implementation was transformed into ISO 14064-1:2018, which would more accurately and deeply control the carbon emission management inside and outside the organization.


In 2022, the Company's GHG emissions (Category 1 + Category 2) were about 242,312.69 metric tons CO2e; relevant analyses showed that out of ChipMOS' total GHG emissions, 98.22% are Category 2 emissions generated by purchased power, Category 1 emissions were less than 1.78% of. Due to safety and protection of the high-voltage equipment at Hukou fab., a total of 1,134 metric tons of CO2e has been emitted due to the use of sulfur hexafluoride (SF6). In light of ChipMOS' emission structure, an energy-saving team has been established internally, to actively conduct energy-saving and carbon reduction management programs for various energy-consuming equipment. In addition to meeting the 1% energy saving requirement of the Bureau of Energy every year, the Company also replaced outdated equipment and adjust control parameters, to improve energy efficiency. For Category 1 emissions in very limited volume, we also strengthen control and promotion for low-carbon actions in daily operations, and reduce the use of natural gas, and gasoline and diesel used official vehicles.

 

 

ChipMOS regularly conducts greenhouse gas inventory and continuous reduction within the organizational boundaries every year. Since 2021, we have taken the initiative to add Category 3 and Category 4 verification in accordance with ISO 14064:2018. The projects concerned include: indirect GHG emissions generated by transportation (including "upstream/downstream transportation and distribution of goods", "business travel activities") and indirect GHG emissions generated by products used by the organization (including "purchased goods" and "solid / liquid waste disposal activities"), so as to find out the best feasible carbon reduction focus and actively invest in reducing GHG emissions.

 

 

Energy Management and Efficiency

The use of energy not only consumes the earth's resources, but also produces carbon dioxide and causes the greenhouse effects. Therefore, the efficient use of energy resources will help mitigate the impact on the environment. In view of the characteristics of the science and technology industry, ChipMOS is one of the major power users under the regulations of the Energy Administration of the Ministry of Economic Affairs. We have always adhered to a rigorous and cherished attitude towards energy use. Since 2012, we began to carry out energy-saving actions in a planned way, and continuously introduced various energy-saving technologies and equipment. In 2014, in Tainan fab., the ISO 50001 Energy Management System was introduced spontaneously. In 2017, Hsinchu fab. was also be ISO 50001 Energy Management System certified. In 2020, we actively promoted the use of renewable energy, built solar power generation equipment, and continued increasing the proportion of renewable energy.

 

Renewable Energy

The outsourced power used in the manufacturing process is the most important source of our overall carbon footprint. Therefore, we are committed to reducing the generation of outsourced power and continue to invest in renewable energy. To support the government's energy transition policy, in 2012, ChipMOS installed the solar energy panels on the roofs of Tainan fab., and signed the contract with Taipower for green power supply; subsequently, in 2019, the second solar power generation system was built. In 2021, the whole fab. was set up in a unified plan to expand the use of renewable energy in the northern fab. In 2021, four additional solar power generation systems were completed on the roofs of our fabs, with the capability up to 990.45 kW (Hsinchu fab., Hukou fab., Zhubei fab. 2 and Tainan fab.). As of the end of 2022, the Company constructed two solar power generation facilities on leased land, generating 932.66 kW of power. This brought our accumulated solar power generation during the past 11 years to a total of 4,935,355 kWh, which can satisfy the monthly electricity consumption of nearly 14,021 households.

 

To actively achieve the carbon reduction goal, ChipMOS' next stage of development planning will focus on the self-generation and self-consumption of solar energy, by planning to complete the solar energy installation of 990.45 kW in 2021 and achieving the target of building 4.5 MW renewable energy by the end of 2023. At the end of 2022, the Company constructed two solar power generation facilities on leased land, generating 932.66 kW of power. Once the in-house solar energy facility planning is complete, for the mid-and long term, the Company will assess the possibility of purchasing and developing other green energy sources, to realize the more ambitious reduction goal.

 

▼Statistics of Solar Power Generation

  Unit 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 Total
Power Generation kWh 290,168 263,360 269,152 265,176 234,512 256,608 258,632 243,120 357,800 943,110 1,553,717 4,935,355
Sunshine Hours Hours/Year - - 2,274 2,511 2,172 2,381 2,353 2,185 2,596 2,250 2,029 2,306
Generation Efficiency kWh - - 118 106 108 108 110 111 138 419 766 220

Notes: Calculated based on the average monthly power consumption of 352 kWh per household in 2021 announced by Taipower (data taken from the official website of Taipower)

 

Carbon Reductions and Energy Conservation

In order to make more effective use of energy resources in important manufacturing sites, we continue developing various energy-saving schemes, extend the scope of promotion from the public environment to the production end, carry out source control, and strive to create a low-carbon green energy production environment. Our specific measures include: upgrading of production equipment such as clean room system, ice water system, lighting reduction system, air conditioning reduction system and production machine environment.