electric cars
Tesla’s Approval Awaited – Water Volume Proceedings
Elon Musk is awaiting approval for his Tesla factory in Germany. Photo: Patrick Pleul/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Tesla’s first electric car factory in Europe is already largely in place. Only the approval is still missing. The factory in Grünheide is also controversial in the region. The mayor is optimistic.
Approval from the state of Brandenburg is expected around eight months after the originally planned start of production at the Tesla electric car factory in Grünheide near Berlin.
Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke (SPD), Environment Minister Axel Vogel (Greens) and Economics Minister Jörg Steinbach (SPD) want to inform about this today in Potsdam. According to the State Chancellery, the environmental approval process for the electric car and battery factory was about to be completed on Thursday. It is Tesla’s first gigafactory in Europe.
According to information from the German Press Agency, a positive decision is expected for Tesla, but also with many conditions. Tesla began construction more than two years ago and set up the factory at its own risk with 19 early approvals. The plan is to initially produce up to 500,000 cars per year there with around 12,000 employees. Around 3000 employees are already employed in Grünheide. Tesla boss Elon Musk is also building a battery factory. Conservationists and residents see the water supply in danger with the settlement. Tesla had rejected concerns.
points of contention
Grünheide’s Mayor Arne Christiani (independent) now sees great openness to Tesla, despite criticism from local residents. “I think they have arrived, no later than the open day,” said Christiani, who is also expected at the press conference in the State Chancellery. “There’s a lot of acceptance now.” Tesla invited around 9,000 visitors from the region to the plant in the fall. The company boss had hoped to start production in summer 2021. Once approved, Tesla must meet several requirements before it can go live.
At the same time there is a dispute about water. On Friday, the Frankfurt (Oder) administrative court heard orally about a lawsuit brought by the Green League and the Brandenburg Nature Conservation Union against a water law permit by the State Office for the Environment for the Eggersdorf waterworks, which also affects the Tesla plant. If the administrative court revokes the water permit, the Strausberg-Erkner water association sees the supply to Tesla of up to 1.4 million cubic meters per year at risk and wants to terminate the supply contract with the car manufacturer. The country and Tesla do not believe there is a connection to the factory approval.
The Green League does not consider the water supply to be secure. Insofar as the water is required for safe plant operation, such as extinguishing water or cooling, ensuring proper plant operation also includes a secure supply of the required amount of water, said State Managing Director Michael Ganschow. That’s part of the approval.