Elon Musk is outraged: A documentary by the ZDF political magazine "Frontal21" pissed off the tech billionaire.
On Twitter, he pestered the television station.
He now wants an interview with the Tesla boss.
Berlin - How much water will the Tesla plant under construction in Grünheide (Merkur.de * reported) near Berlin use for the production of electric cars and the associated batteries per year?
A dispute between Tesla founder Elon Musk and ZDF * has broken out over the answer to this question.
In the documentary "Turbo, Tempo, Tesla - Elon Musk in Brandenburg" broadcast by the political magazine "Frontal21" on March 16, 2021, research estimates that the so-called Gigafactory will need around 3.6 million cubic meters of water per year.
That would be almost 30 percent of the total water volume in the region.
However, the consumption forecast by the company Tesla was less than half - at 1.4 million cubic meters.
Elon Musk now feels that he is being shown as a bogeyman.
The residents of the Freienbrink industrial park see Elon Musk's water claims as a threat to the public drinking water supply * and also the head of the Strausberg-Erkner (WSE) water association, André Bähler, points out in the ZDF documentary that the
Gigafactory
does not use it at all there is enough water available.
1.4 million cubic meters of water correspond to 1.4 billion liters of water.
Too much for the federal state of Brandenburg, which is already increasingly reaching its supply limits in terms of its water resources.
But what is certain is that from summer 2021 at least 500,000 electric cars per year will be produced in Grünheide, Brandenburg, and that will require water.
For the paint shop, the foundry, the final assembly, the cooling towers as well as for sanitary facilities and cleaning purposes.
Elon Musk makes his anger at ZDF public on Twitter
Another sensitive point in the water consumption cause is that Tesla's factory premises in Grünheide are located in a
drinking water protection
area.
In addition, last year Tesla's offense to test driving stakes into the ground caused explosives.
Because according to the Water Resources Act, companies need permission from the district for piles near the groundwater *, as the Handelsblatt reports.
But Tesla didn't have this.
The Oder-Spree district then opened proceedings for an administrative offense.
Tesla boss Elon Musk downplays the water issue in the ZDF documentary: "Basically, we are not in a very dry region," he said.
"Trees wouldn't grow if there was no water." "I mean, we're not in the desert here." The skepticism and criticism expressed in the documentary about his factory annoyed the 49-year-old self-made billionaire the palm that he felt compelled to give ZDF a punch on Twitter: “
Wow, shame on ZDF Info!
“He tweeted.
So far, there have been 15,900 likes.
Measured against the number of its followers of 49.7 million users, this seems to be rather less popular.
Wow, shame on ZDF Info!
- Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 24, 2021
The State Environment Ministry and Brandenburg's Environment Minister Axel Vogel (Greens) view the water supply of the Gigafactory with concern: "A planned large-scale settlement like Tesla shows that the challenges associated with it can hardly be mastered by a municipality or its association alone, but that overarching regional solutions are required." said Vogel recently on the occasion of
World Water Day
.
But because Tesla is creating many new jobs *, the state policy of Brandenburg is in favor of the factory and is planning a drinking water reservoir whose capacity should be able to cover the water consumption of the Tesla plant.
*
Merkur.de
is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA