Credit: @Gf4Tesla/X

• Tesla Giga Berlin sees no problems with approval for its expansion, after reviewing the objections, raised as part of public participation.
• The company complied with the previously established requirements in full.
• The factory uses significantly less than the approved level of water, so problems with water supply are not expected.

The process of filing objections to the expansion of the Tesla factory in Grünheide, Germany has already ended. A total of 1,079 objections were filed and after reviewing them, the manufacturer is optimistic. According to the company, the majority of objections are “sample objections,” so fewer substantive discussions will be required than at public participation events in 2020 and 2021. Tesla said that objections have been filed in the areas of nature conservation law, forestry law, building law, major incident law, pollution control law, and water law, MOZ.de reports. It is worth emphasizing that many issues were already discussed in the first amendment to Plan B 13 and then implemented. The whole project is based on this.

Overall, “there are no points of attack that could compromise the approval project,” Tesla said. The company is therefore awaiting initial partial approval under the Federal Emission Control Act (BImSchG) from the State Environmental Agency (LfU). Tesla representatives explained that there are only a few editorial errors that will be corrected, but nothing that requires a complete redesign or conversion.

“We know the local requirements very well,” company officials said. Months of coordination discussions were held in advance with specialist planners and authorities. They are currently correcting the incorrect numbers or reference documents in the application pointed out by objectors.

Tesla plans to apply for further expansion steps in the future. However, they are “not yet formulated” and are also subject to the first partial approval. There is no set schedule for all expansion phases.

“The sooner we get partial approval, the better,” Tesla emphasized. Whether the company can maintain its well-known “Tesla speed” on construction projects depends on “legally guaranteed approval.” The company again expects to receive several hundred demands from the authorities.

Tesla said that no new species protection issues are addressed in the expansion since all sand lizards and anthills have already been implemented. No additional logging is required, all initial reforestation activities have been completed, and high-quality reforestation is underway. Therefore, less attention could be paid to these nature and environmental objections.

According to Tesla, the issue of protecting groundwater represents the biggest set of contradictions. In this context, the company described driving 81,200 piles as a “worst-case scenario.” However, it is expected that fewer piles will be required to protect the workshops. The procedure is considered acceptable. The concrete is also certified so that there will be no release of contaminants into groundwater.

Environment Minister Axel Vogel also received new information about Tesla's water needs in Grünheide. At the moment, it is not at all as high as expected. Initially, a quota of up to 1.8 million cubic meters of water per year was agreed upon with Tesla. Minister Vogel said that last year the company used only 0.3 million cubic meters. In addition, he said that 0.3 million cubic meters were also used in 2023 so far. This highlights that water consumption per vehicle is significantly lower than expected.

© 2023, Eva Fox | Tesmanian. All rights reserved.

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