On February 24, it was reported that Tesla’s water supply contract for its Berlin plant may need to be rewritten if local environmental groups in Germany question the license the water company has obtained at a hearing next week.
Local environmental groups have previously complained that the environmental authorities of the German state of Brandenburg conducted insufficient inspections before issuing a permit to local utility WSE. The Oder Administrative Court in Frankfurt will hold a hearing on the matter on March 4 and hear the complaint in court.
If the environmental groups win, the WSE would have to cancel the contract it already had with Tesla and renegotiate the issue of where the Berlin Gigafactory would get its water supply. This can be a long process with no guaranteed solution.
A court spokesman said a decision was expected on the day of the trial. Tesla declined to comment on the case. As the planning approval process for Tesla’s Berlin plant enters its final stages, further delays in the water supply contract will create another headache for the plant’s construction work.
Volkswagen currently has a quarter of the European EV market, while Tesla has 13%. Chief executive Elon Musk had hoped to have the Berlin Gigafactory up and running six months ago, the key to his early conquest of the European electric car market.
After several delays in the opening of the factory, Musk said in October last year that he hoped that the Berlin Gigafactory would be operational by December of that year. Now Tesla has not updated the factory opening time.
Gruene Liga and Nabu, the local environmental groups that filed the lawsuit, fear that Tesla’s Berlin Gigafactory needs 1.4 million cubic meters of water a year, the equivalent of a town of 30,000 people that will run out of drinking water in the area.
The municipally-run WSE itself has expressed concerns about the water supply. WSE spokeswoman Sandra Ponetsky said that while Tesla’s Berlin Gigafactory doesn’t use particularly large amounts of water, and BASF’s battery plant, a few hours’ drive away, uses more water, local limited water resources.
“We are a relatively water-rich country,” she said. “But we need help from other regions… What water company has the ability to conjure so much water out of thin air in such a short period of time?”
Tesla has faced a series of challenges in recent months, with frequent recalls of its electric vehicles and U.S. regulators reviewing Musk’s public postings and allegations that the company discriminates against workers. This lawsuit undoubtedly adds another difficulty to the company’s development.
Tesla said in its latest quarterly earnings report that the fourth quarter of 2021 saw another record high in electric vehicle deliveries. But Chief Financial Officer Zach Kirkhorn said last month that increased production at its gigafactories in Berlin, Germany and Austin in the United States would be needed to make up for lost capacity earlier last year due to supply chain and logistics issues.
Kirkhorn also said in October that “we intend to build these plants where there is a lot of land and capacity that can be expanded.”
However, WSE has made it clear that even if the court allows it to supply water for the first phase of Tesla’s Berlin Gigafactory, if it does not transfer water from other regions in the future, it will not be possible to supply water for further expansion of the factory’s production capacity in the future.
“We knew we were hitting our limit. We expected to hit that limit in 2050,” Ponecki said. “It turned out that with Tesla, that puts us 30 years ahead.”
Musk has on several occasions expressed his anger at Germany’s complicated approval process, saying it doesn’t match the urgency needed to fight climate change.
But activists in the German state of Brandenburg have issued numerous warnings to the Berlin Gigafactory, citing environmental concerns over trees being cut down to build the plant, an endangered species of snake that used to live on the site and water problems .
“For years, the local population has been told to cut back on water. Then the richest man in the world came and stomped everything under his feet,” said Manuela, a Glenhead resident and leader of an environmental group that opposes the establishment of the factory. Manuela Hoyer said. “There’s something wrong with the whole system.”
But the local environment department in the German state of Brandenburg insists that there is sufficient water supply for local residents and Tesla’s Berlin Gigafactory.
“The local government does not believe that the drinking water of the 170,000 people in the area is at risk,” Axel Vogel, the local environment minister, said at a local council meeting in January.
In addition to the pending court case, Tesla is currently awaiting final approval for a planning application for the Berlin Gigafactory.
A spokesman said the local environment agency was still in the final stages of approving a 13,500-page application for Tesla’s Berlin Super to start commercial production, but it would still take “some time.”
“Even if it is finally approved, the number of pages in the approval document will be in three figures. It will certainly not be less than that, as there are many conditions and requirements,” the spokesman said.