Tesla given court approval for Gigafactory forest clearance

Tesla has been given the go-ahead by the higher administrative court of Berlin-Brandenburg to continue tree felling at the Grünheide forest to clear the way for its Gigafactory project. The court rejected pleas by environmental groups saying the decision was final. 

An injunction taken out earlier this week had suspended all activity at the site. At the time, the court said that protesters should not take the temporary injunction as a success on the part of the activists.

Environmental group Grüne Liga Brandenburg had expressed concerns over the effect the Gigafactory would have on the water supply and the forest itself. Tesla has said that it had already addressed the concerns and that it would replant trees covering an area three times as large as the factory plot.

Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk has taken to Twitter in an attempt to allay the fears of the protesters. He argued that on a typical day the factory would use much less water than the amount being claimed by environmentalists. He added that the Grünheide forest was "not a natural forest - it was planted for use as cardboard and only a small part will be used for GF4".

Tesla is planning to clear 92 hectares of the forest with construction of the factory scheduled to begin this year with an eye to starting vehicle production by 2021. The Berlin Gigafactory will be the company's fourth, with others being in Nevada, New York and Shanghai.

The Gigafactory is expected to produce 500,000 electric cars a year and employ around 12,000 people. The project has proved to be divisive amongst locals and the German environmental movement.

Ramona Pop, a senior Green Party local politician in Berlin criticised the injunction taken out by Grüne Liga. In an interview with the newspaper, Berliner Zeitung, she said: "you don't always have to oppose everything. It is absurd to declare a pine plantation as a forest. We need to keep some perspective. Tesla's future investment should be allowed quickly for clean mobility and climate protection."

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