2023-10-23 17:57:57
The discussion on the planned expansion of the American electric car manufacturer Tesla’s factory outside Berlin began with a scandal. Several citizens’ initiatives and numerous environmentalists, who submitted more than 1,000 objections to the responsible authorities, demonstratively stayed away from the event and called for the discussion to be canceled immediately.
The documents provided by Tesla and the responsible authorities were partially blacked out and the submitted approval application had been changed in the meantime, they explained as justification. The Strausberg-Erkner water association, which was supposed to provide information at the public hearing on questions about Tesla’s water consumption at the Grünheide site, was also missing. He referred to new documents that still need to be examined.
“This discussion is a scandal,” said one of the almost two dozen critics who had nevertheless gathered in the Erkner town hall. The state of Brandenburg rejected the allegations. “This is a completely normal procedural process,” emphasized meeting leader André Zschiegner from the State Office for the Environment.
Expansion despite weakness in the electric car market
The Tesla factory in Grünheide has been heating up people’s minds since the expansion plans were announced this spring. The media-wide announcement of the original plans for the production site by CEO Elon Musk in Berlin in November 2019 caused a sensation.
The subsequent approval process also drove environmentalists to the barricades because the electric car manufacturer was able to build the factory based on provisional approvals while their objections to the consequences for groundwater and species protection as well as emissions were still being discussed. At the opening ceremony of the factory in March 2022, company founder Elon Musk and Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz also had the honor.
Despite the ongoing weakness in sales in the electric car market, Tesla plans to increase production capacity in Grünheide from 500,000 cars to one million vehicles per year. The capacity for battery production at the site is also to be doubled. That is what the current discussion is about. The company in Grünheide currently produces around 250,000 vehicles per year with around 11,000 employees.
The worries about water
Environmentalists and nature conservationists as well as residents of the region fear negative consequences of the expansion, especially for the water supply. “The absolute focus is the water issue,” confirmed meeting leader Zschiegner. The factory is partly located in a water protection area. Most of the 1,070 objections concern the topic of water. But it is also about nature conservation issues, dealing with incidents and issues of emissions protection.
Tesla has already announced that it will continue to use the 1.8 million cubic meters of water per year even after the expansion, for which there are already agreements with the Strausberg-Erkner water association.
Conservationists’ concerns about groundwater not only relate to consumption, but also to the construction of up to 81,000 piles that will support the new factory building. “The concrete piles planned over an area of approximately 500,000 square meters would create a massive block-like flow obstacle underground to a depth of 18 meters,” warn five nature conservation associations in a statement. Tesla rejects the concerns. The diversion effect can no longer be measured at a distance of 100 meters from the pile foundations.
The state government sees no obstacles
The group is submitting three-part applications for environmental approval to the state of Brandenburg for the expansion and does not expect any major hurdles for the first approval. Based on the objections, the car manufacturer says it does not see any significant obstacles to the entire project, but assumes there will be hundreds of requirements.
According to the state government’s assessment, the deficiencies in the published application documents criticized by the conservationists do not represent a pitfall. The documents have been changed in the meantime, which is permissible, explained meeting leader Zschiegner. No significant changes should be made and no completely new project should arise. The documents do not have to be so specific that an approval decision can be made on their basis. “It has to be roughly clear: what’s going to happen there?” said Zschiegner.
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“Of course we cannot check how significant the changes are,” replied Michael Ganschow, state manager of the Brandenburg Green League, who, like the Association for Nature and Landscape, stayed away from the hearing. “The question is what role the State Office for the Environment, as the approval authority, still plays in the process,” said Ganschow about the further procedure. The State Environment Agency approved the Tesla factory in 2022.
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