Tesla breaks its green power promise – with its own gas power plant
Tesla boss Elon Musk actually wants to save the climate and thus the planet with his electric cars
Source: dpa/Susan Walsh
Tesla’s electric cars are considered to be particularly climate-friendly. But as part of the expansion of the Gigafactory in Brandenburg, the US group now wants to build its own power plant. The expected service life is interesting. And more fossils are planned.
BRandenburg’s Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke (SPD) sounded clear in the spring of 2022: “Tesla produces 100 percent green electricity, so it needs a lot of renewable energy,” quoted him as saying “Handelsblatt“ in relation to the so-called Gigafactory in Grünheide, Brandenburg.
Actually a matter of course, after all Tesla boss Elon Musk wants to save the climate and thus the planet with his electric cars. Of course, it depends on the energy used to produce the e-cars and their batteries.
However, Tesla already obtains a considerable part of the energy for the plant in Grünheide from 100 percent green electricity, but also uses natural gas for production. And the importance of fossil fuels will even increase in the future.
This emerges from the documents with which Tesla has applied to the state of Brandenburg to expand the capacities of its only European factory. In the future, around one million vehicles will be able to be built here every year – twice as many as before.
But the application documents, which are publicly available on the Internet, show that Tesla not only wants to convert and expand its existing production facilities, but is also planning its own gas-fired power plant and a tank farm for liquefied natural gas (LNG) on the factory premises. “With the overall project, a temporary gas power plant (…) is to be built with a thermal output of up to 45 MW,” says the application.
The documents do not state how long the “temporary” use should last. Originally the sentence was in the documents: “Since this part of the plant is only to be built for a maximum of one year, this is not considered further in this application for the first partial permit.” But this sentence was deleted. Tesla has so far left questions about the planned gas power plant unanswered.
LPG terminal should make Gigafactory more independent
The purpose of the power plant is also clearly stated in the application: “The temporary gas power plant (…) serves to support the power supply of the GFBB.” GFBB stands for “Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg”. It goes on to say: “This is powered by natural gas from the public gas supply and is connected to an electricity generator.”
The “temporary liquid gas terminal” is also intended to make the Tesla factory more independent. It serves “to support the gas supply of the GFBB in the event of a bottleneck in the public gas supply,” says the application. Tesla is probably drawing the conclusion from the experiences of the past year, when it was unclear for a long time during the energy crisis whether the industry could be supplied with sufficient gas in winter. “The gas is delivered in liquefied form and then made usable by evaporators,” says Form 3.1.
However, liquid gas is considered to be particularly harmful to the environment because it was often obtained in the USA by so-called fracking. The use of LNG by Tesla would be correspondingly bad for the image of the electric cars produced in Grünheide. According to Form 3.5 of the application, a total of 2.76 tons of liquid gas (LNG) are to be stored in Grünheide in the future.
Second natural gas pipeline for Tesla factory
However, the demand for natural gas is much higher and will increase due to the planned capacity expansion. In the future, a peak demand of 21,800 standard cubic meters of natural gas per hour is expected.
“To cover this precautionary requirement, development via a second natural gas supply line is planned,” says the application. The second line is to arrive in the north-west of the factory site and the Gigafactory, together with the existing first line, will then be able to supply up to 32,000 standard cubic meters of natural gas.
The documents also contain an analysis by the Society for Environmental and Management Consulting, in which the noise emissions from the planned factory expansion are examined. It gives an indication of how often the gas power plant in the Gigafactory should run.
For the investigation, the gas power plant is based on the following operating processes, it says: “24 hours a day and seven days a week”. Tesla has so far left all questions about the planned gas power plant unanswered.
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