Tesla builds solar parking lot in Grünheide without permission

Tesla’s Gigafactory in Grünheide near Berlin is once again making negative headlines. The U.S. carmaker is accused of driving over 100 concrete piles into the ground at the gigantic production facility without the appropriate permit. The outcry is now accordingly large with the residents and environmentalists.

Tesla wants to build solar canopy

If one thing has become clear with the Gigafactory in Grünheide, it is the different speeds between US authorities and their German counterparts. After all, Tesla was already ahead of its time when it built the factory complex. It was only after the manufacturing facilities were completed that a permit for construction was available at all. Now it has become known that the U.S. carmaker has once again carried out construction measures without a permit. In order to erect solar roofs over the huge parking lots to generate energy, the company has driven over 100 concrete pillars into the ground. Unlike the factory itself, there apparently wasn’t even a pre-construction notice here, which indicates quite reliably whether a project is approvable or not. It is possible that the U.S. automaker assumed that the construction of the solar roofs would not require a permit anyway.

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According to the responsible authority of the Brandenburg district Oder-Spree, however, one “assumes at the moment that it is a project requiring a permit.” After all, the driving of meter-long concrete piles in the local water protection area is just only possible with permission. This emerges from a report of the Märkische Oderzeitung (MOZ) of 09 February 2023. Further the authority speaker indicated opposite the regional newspaper that one stopped the appropriate building work for the time being. From the article it also emerges that Tesla had begun construction work at the beginning of the week. The goal, according to the authority, is a “solar canopy.” This is a roofing of a parking lot with solar cells. However, Tesla has never spoken of a corresponding construction project, let alone submitted one to the authority.

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Not the first driven piles in Grünheide

For the construction of the gigantic Gigafactory Tesla already had to drive some piles into the ground of the local drinking water protection area. About 500 to 550 of them are said to be already in the ground. However, this cannot be compared with the piles for the solar roof. After all, these are obviously much less deep in the ground due to the different static conditions. It is therefore not surprising that the district has stated that there is no acute risk to the groundwater. Consequently, it should come as no surprise if Tesla is allowed to proceed with the construction of the solar roof sooner or later.

Meanwhile, residents in Grünheide and the surrounding area are pleased about the construction stop. Locally, however, people are somewhat disillusioned about Tesla anyway. After all, residents are beginning to get the feeling that the U.S. carmaker can do whatever it wants. In particular with regard to the local water protection area, there is far too little monitoring of the construction site work. This opinion expressed a member of the citizens’ initiative Grünheide and the association for nature and landscape in Brandenburg to the MOZ. We are curious to see how Tesla’s latest construction project will proceed. After all, a parking lot covered with solar cells makes sense in any case.