<story><title>Samsung asks for planning permission for 11 fabs in Texas</title><url>https://www.electronicsweekly.com/uncategorised/802190-2022-07/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>CoastalCoder</author><text>Here&amp;#x27;s something that confuses me about building fabs in Texas. IIUC:&lt;p&gt;1) Power disruptions in fabs are very expensive.&lt;p&gt;2) Texas&amp;#x27;s power grid has gained a reputation lately for being unreliable.&lt;p&gt;If those things are true, how do they plan to deal with that?  Heavy investment in onsite power generation?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>rossdavidh</author><text>Austin resident here, who used to work in fabs.&lt;p&gt;Basically, there was a time (1980&amp;#x27;s) when fabs in Austin had their own power generation.  AMD, which used to have its own fabs, had its own power for them.  Then, they (not just AMD but everybody with fabs in Texas) eventually decided it wasn&amp;#x27;t worth the cost, and started using the regular power grid, because Austin&amp;#x27;s power had become more reliable.  Obviously, as the percentage of solar, wind, and natgas has increased, and the percentage of coal has decreased, this reliability has been thrown into question.  Also, the rapid population increase has also just meant a general problem of building new capacity fast enough.&lt;p&gt;My guess is that they have an eye on it, and it is also possible they will build their own power generation, but more likely they are just getting guarantees of some sort that enough power capacity will be built.</text></comment>
<story><title>Samsung asks for planning permission for 11 fabs in Texas</title><url>https://www.electronicsweekly.com/uncategorised/802190-2022-07/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>CoastalCoder</author><text>Here&amp;#x27;s something that confuses me about building fabs in Texas. IIUC:&lt;p&gt;1) Power disruptions in fabs are very expensive.&lt;p&gt;2) Texas&amp;#x27;s power grid has gained a reputation lately for being unreliable.&lt;p&gt;If those things are true, how do they plan to deal with that?  Heavy investment in onsite power generation?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>marcinzm</author><text>Given this is just an initial permission with no concrete plan to build they may also be trying to induce a bidding war with another location that is more favorable (but more expensive).</text></comment>