Exclusive Interview: ST's Muggeri Discusses Industrial Automation, WBG, and Sustainability

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Francesco Muggeri talks about industrial automation opportunities, ST's Competence Centers, and the role of semiconductors in sustainability.

www.eetasia.com/, Aug. 30, 2023 – 

The road to net zero continues to be challenging. In its "Net Zero by 2050: A Roadmap for the Global Energy Sector" report, the International Energy Agency (IEA) noted that carbon emissions rose by a record 1.9Gt to reach 36.6Gt in 2021, driven by the rapid post-pandemic economic growth and a surge in coal demand even as renewable energy capacity sees record additions.

Nevertheless, while the pathway to net zero emissions (NZE) remain narrow, the goal is still achievable, according to IEA, if policy holders and stakeholders could respond coherently to the challenges of climate change, energy affordability, and energy security.

Increasing the number of clean energy supplies–from solar or wind–however, should also be complemented by measures to save energy–through energy efficiency, material efficiency, and behavioral change.

For example, total worldwide electricity consumption reached around 23,015TWh in 2022, according to IEA. Based on its Electricity Market Report 2023, the industrial sector accounted for 49% of the overall electricity consumption worldwide. Just a 1% energy efficiency improvement in industrial electricity consumption would yield a total savings of around 112.77TWh, according to Francesco Muggeri, VP of Marketing & Applications, Power Discrete & Analog, APeC/China, at STMicroelectronics, during an interview with EE Times Asia in their Singapore facility. He adds that such amount of energy savings is equivalent to around 11 million tons of coal, 55 million barrels of oil, or around the capacity of 17 nuclear plants.

Indeed, even a tiny efficiency improvement in semiconductor devices, given their ubiquity in our daily lives–almost every technology product we use at home, in the office, at schools, and even gaming, have chips inside–will result in a significant amount of energy savings overall, especially in power intensive sectors, such as the industrial segment.

Which is considerably a sweet spot for STMicroelectronics. With a wide portfolio of devices including discretes and power transistors, sensors, analog and power conversion ICs, as well as MCUs and MPUs, ST addresses the fastest growing applications in the industrial segment, including automation, power and energy, and motor control.

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