Tesla will expand its factory near the border with Poland. The company may have a problem
Tesla plans to expand its factory in Gruenheide, near Berlin. However, the expansion project of the plant near the Polish border has as many as a thousand reservations, including numerous concerns about the environment.
Tesla wants to produce more electric cars at its German Gigafactory Berlin plant. However, the initiative to expand Elon Musk’s huge factory met with a strong response from environmentalists who have doubts about the company’s plan.
Tesla vs Ecologists – criticism of the expansion of the Gigafactory in Berlin
More than a thousand comments submitted regarding the expansion of the factory will be heard on Monday. Many of them come from environmental organizations. One of them is Gruene Liga, which points out that Tesla has not provided key details of the planned expansion. Another accusation is that, according to critics, Tesla reacts incorrectly in the event of a failure.
– Tesla’s safety report is largely censored (…) This makes public participation in the decision-making process grotesque, Michael Ganschow, the state head of Gruene Liga, told reporters.
The documents reportedly do not even include all types of facilities planned as part of the expansion. According to ecologists, applications submitted to offices have also been changed several times and it is currently unknown what their final version looks like.
The organizations BUND, Gruene Liga, NaturFreunde Deutschland (NFD), Schutzgemeinschaft Deutscher Wald (SDW) today asked the local Environmental Protection Office for updated information.
Expansion of Gigafactory Berlin – Tesla is calm about the project
Environmental defenders plan to submit up to 1,070 comments. Most of them concern interference with the region’s water resources. The next ones concern nature protection, possible forest clearing and what to do in the event of a production line failure.
However, Tesla seems confident that the project will be approved and the first consent to expand the factory will be granted. As the company says, environmentalists’ comments will not have a significant impact on the decision. The company takes into account hundreds of conditions, just as it did when building the plant in Gruenheide in 2022. The company emphasizes, among others: that it does not plan to increase water consumption or interfere with groundwater.
