Jazz Semiconductor Joins Cool Planet Project

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., April 16, 2009 - To reduce the company's carbon footprint and significantly increase efficiencies, Jazz Semiconductor, a Tower Group Company (NASDAQ: TSEM, TASE: TSEM), and leading Orange County chipmaker, is conducting an efficiency overhaul in the operation of its globally competitive 24/7 fabrication facility. Jazz has instituted new technology and practices resulting in savings of more than 7.5 million Kilowatt hours (kWh) per year and the avoidance of 5,386 tons of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the equivalent of taking 986 cars off the road.

"We take energy efficiency very seriously," says Nabil Alali, Senior VP, Fab Operations and Site Facilities, Jazz Semiconductor. "We have completed projects that have improved the performance and energy efficiency of air, water, and production equipment systems, reducing consumption of water, compressed air and electricity throughout our plant."

In addition, Jazz has joined the Cool Planet Project, an energy efficiency and climate change mitigation program, administered by The Climate Registry and Southern California Edison (SCE). The Project highlights the connection between energy usage and GHG emissions, providing assistance to measure, verify, and report entity-wide GHG profile and emissions reductions.

"SCE is proud to be the first utility to host the Cool Planet Project. We are committed to taking action on climate change and applaud Jazz for its environmental leadership," said Gene Rodrigues, Director of Energy Efficiency, SCE. "We also congratulate them for receiving California's Flex Your Power Award and look forward to continuing our work with Jazz to increase energy efficiency."

Additional efforts by Jazz for energy savings include installation of a recycled high-tech water purification system and retrofitting of special air handlers, which are a necessity in the semiconductor manufacturing process. These projects represent 4M kWh/year saved and 2,873 tons of GHG emissions avoided which equals 526 passenger car emissions per year avoided.

JAZZ SEMICONDUCTOR, INC., a Tower Group Company, is a leading wafer foundry focused on Analog-Intensive Mixed-Signal process technologies (www.jazzsemi.com).

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA EDISON is the largest electric utility in California, serving more than 13 million via 4.8 million customer accounts in a 50,000-square-mile service area within Central, Coastal and Southern California (www.sce.com).

THE CLIMATE REGISTRY sets consistent and transparent standards for the measurement, verification, and public reporting of greenhouse gas emissions throughout North America in a single unified registry (www.theclimateregistry.org).

Jazz Company Contact:
Melinda Jarrell
949/435-8181
melinda.jarrell@jazzsemi.com

Jazz Media Contact:
Lauri Julian
949/715-3049
lauri.julian@jazzsemi.com

The Climate Registry:
Christina Haro
949/453-0430
christina@catercommunications.com