AFP UK

Abdul Qadeer Khan, who died Sunday, was lauded in Pakistan for transforming it into the world’s first Islamic nuclear weapons power.

But he was seen by the West as a dangerous renegade responsible for smuggling technology to rogue states.

The nuclear scientist, who died at 85 in Islamabad after recently being hospitalised with Covid-19, was revered as “the father of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb”.

He was seen as a national hero for bringing the country up to par with arch-rival India in the atomic field and making its defences “impregnable”.

But he found himself in the crosshairs of controversy when he was accused of illegally proliferating nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea.

Khan was placed under effective house arrest in the capital Islamabad in 2004 after he admitted running a proliferation network to the three countries. 

In 2006 he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, but recovered after surgery.

A court ended his house arrest in February 2009, but his movements were strictly guarded, and he was accompanied by authorities every time he left his home in an upscale sector of leafy Islamabad.

– Crucial contribution –

Born in Bhopal, India on April 1, 1936, Khan was just a young boy when his family migrated to Pakistan during the bloody 1947 partition of the sub-continent at the end of British colonial rule.

He did a science degree at Karachi University in 1960, then went on to study metallurgical engineering in Berlin before completing advanced studies in the Netherlands and Belgium.

The crucial contribution to Pakistan’s nuclear programme was the procurement of a blueprint for uranium centrifuges, which transform uranium into weapons-grade fuel for nuclear fissile material.

He was charged with stealing it from the Netherlands while working for Anglo-Dutch-German nuclear engineering consortium Urenco, and bringing it back to Pakistan in 1976.

On his return to Pakistan, then prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto put Khan in charge of the government’s nascent uranium enrichment project.

By 1978, his team had enriched uranium and by 1984 they were ready to detonate a nuclear device, Khan later said in a newspaper interview.

The 1998 nuclear test saw Pakistan slapped with international sanctions and sent its economy into freefall.

Khan’s aura began to dim in March 2001 when then president Pervez Musharraf, reportedly under US pressure, removed him from the chairmanship of Kahuta Research Laboratories and made him a special adviser.

But Pakistan’s nuclear establishment never expected to see its most revered hero subjected to questioning.

The move came after Islamabad received a letter from the International Atomic Energy Agency, a UN watchdog, containing allegations that Pakistani scientists were the source of sold-off nuclear knowledge.

Khan said in a speech to the Pakistan Institute of National Affairs in 1990 that he had dealings on world markets while developing Pakistan’s nuclear programme.

“It was not possible for us to make each and every piece of equipment within the country,” he said.

– ‘I saved the country’ –

Khan was pardoned by Musharraf after his confession but later retracted his remarks.

“I saved the country for the first time when I made Pakistan a nuclear nation and saved it again when I confessed and took the whole blame on myself,” Khan told AFP in an interview in 2008 while under effective house arrest.

The scientist believed in nuclear defence as the best deterrent.

After Islamabad carried out atomic tests in 1998 in response to tests by India, Khan said Pakistan “never wanted to make nuclear weapons. It was forced to do so”.

Nearly a decade ago, Khan tried his luck in the political arena, forming a party — the Tehreek-e-Tahafuz Pakistan (TTP), or the Save Pakistan Movement — in July 2012 in hopes of winning votes on the basis of the respect he still commands in Pakistan.

But he dissolved it a year later after none of its 111 candidates won a seat in national elections.

Khan also stirred a new controversy that same year when, in an interview to mass circulated Urdu newspaper Daily Jang, he said he transferred nuclear technology to two countries on the direction of slain prime minister Benazir Bhutto. 

He did not name the countries, nor did he say when Bhutto, the twice-elected prime minister who was assassinated in 2007, had supposedly issued the orders. 

“I was not independent but was bound to abide by the orders of the prime minister,” he was quoted as saying.

Bhutto’s Pakistan Peoples Party denied the claim as “baseless and unfounded”.

None of the controversies appear to have dented Khan’s popularity, even years on.

He regularly wrote op-ed pieces, often preaching the value of a scientific education, for the popular Jang group of newspapers.

Many schools, universities, institutes and charity hospitals across Pakistan are named after him, his portrait decorating their signs, stationery and websites.

Dawdon coalmine in northeast England was abandoned three decades ago, but is being brought back to life as the unlikely setting for a green energy revolution.

The carbon-intensive colliery, near the town of Seaham on the windswept northeast English coast, hauled coal from deep underground until its closure in 1991.

Dawdon has long since flooded with water because part of the mine is below sea level, and is heated by geothermal energy.

Authorities now want to capture and harness this valuable and unlimited green energy source to power a new garden village development.

“The heat is basically coming from the ground,” said Durham County Council official Mark Wilkes, whose portfolio includes climate change.

Water deep inside the mine heats up underground to about 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit).

At the colliery’s entrance, where thousands of miners once rushed to work, the vast pipes of a treatment plant now suck up the equivalent of a bathtub of warm water every two seconds, which is used to heat up a separate water supply.

In turn, this water circuit is heated via a pump until it reaches 55-60 degrees Celsius.

The plant treats the highly acidic and ferrous water in order to prevent contamination of local beaches and water supplies.

Its heat will eventually power local homes, while the treated water is released back into the sea.

– Industrial revolution turns green –

“We are taking what was from the industrial revolution — and we’re using it for the green revolution,” Wilkes told AFP.

Heat from the water has so far only been used for the heating of the facility.

But in two years’ time the local authority will create a new village of 1,500 homes nearby — entirely heated by the plant.

“It is an unlimited source of energy: the water is coming through all the time,” added Wilkes.

“There are costs with the technology, but hopefully this will help to keep the cap on those costs going forward.”

This is the first geothermal project on such a large scale in Britain, and Wilkes hopes it could also heat nearby businesses.

Britain is heavily dependent on natural gas for electricity generation, although Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who hosts the COP26 climate summit next month in Glasgow, wants to shift all UK energy production to renewable sources by 2035 to help reach carbon neutrality by 2050.

The urgency of the move was underlined by a surge in gas prices last week to record heights, stoked by economies reopening after coronavirus shutdowns and fears of spiking demand in the upcoming northern hemisphere winter.

Durham County Council has yet to name the company that will operate and partly finance the Dawdon plant.

The geothermal heating will not be cost-free but authorities hope it will be cheaper than using gas.

– Pretty low carbon –

“The heat pump uses an electrical input,” said Charlotte Adams, manager for mine energy at the UK Coal Authority industry body, which oversees old mines.

“So it’s not carbon-neutral, but it is energy efficient.

“But as you can imagine, over time the carbon content of electricity is decreasing, as we decarbonise our electricity supply.

“So over time, you’re getting close to something which is pretty low carbon.”

The process is four times more energy efficient than a purely electric heating system, Adams said.

The Dawdon green energy project will cost between £12 million and £15 million, funded via government, the plant’s future operating company and property fees.

Beekeepers Mustafa Alti and his son Fehmi were kept busy tending to their hives before wildfires tore through a bucolic region of Turkey that makes most of the world’s prized pine honey.

Now the Altis and generations of other honey farmers in Turkey’s Aegean province of Mugla are scrambling to find additional work and wondering how many decades it might take to get their old lives back on track.

“Our means of existence is from beekeeping, but when the forests burned, our source of income fell,” said Fehmi, 47, next to his mountainside beehives in the fire-ravaged village of Cokek.

“I do side jobs, I do some tree felling, that way we manage to make do.”

Nearly 200,000 hectares of forests — more than five times the annual average — were scorched by fires across Turkey this year, turning luscious green coasts popular with tourists into ash.

The summer disaster and an accompanying series of deadly floods made the climate — already weighing heavily on the minds of younger voters — a major issue two years before the next scheduled election.

Signalling a political shift, Turkey’s parliament this week ended a five-year wait and ratified the Paris Agreement on cutting the greenhouse emissions that are blamed for global warming and abnormal weather events.

But the damage has already been done in Mugla, where 80 percent of Turkey’s pine honey is produced.

Turkey as a whole makes 92 percent of the world’s pine honey, meaning supplies of the thick, dark amber may be running low worldwide very soon.

– Special insect –

Turkey’s pine honey harvests were already suffering from drought when the wildfires hit, destroying the delicate balance between bees, trees, and the little insects at the heart of the production process.

The honey is made by bees after they collect the sugary secretions of the tiny Basra beetle (Marchalina hellenica), which lives on the sap of pine trees. 

Fehmi hopes the beetles will adapt to younger trees after the fires. But he also accepts that “it will take at least five or 10 years to get our previous income back”.

His father Mustafa agrees, urging President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government to expand forested areas and plant young trees.

“There’s no fixing a burnt house. Can you fix the dead? No. But new trees might come, a new generation,” Mustafa said.

For now, though, the beekeepers are counting their losses and figuring out what comes next.

The president of the Mugla Beekeepers’ Association, Veli Turk, expects his region’s honey production to plunge by up to 95 percent this year.

“There is pretty much no Marmaris honey left,” he said.

“This honey won’t come for another 60 years,” he predicted. “It’s not just Turkey. This honey would go everywhere in the world. It was a blessing. This is really a huge loss.”

– ‘So much loss’ –

Beekeeper Yasar Karayigit, 45, is thinking of switching to a different type of honey to keep his passion — and sole source of income — alive.

“I love beekeeping, but to continue, I’ll have to pursue alternatives,” Karayigit said, mentioning royal jelly (or “bee milk”) and sunflower honey, which involves additional costs.

“But if we love the bees, we have to do this,” the father-of-three said.

Ismail Atici, head of the Milas district Chamber of Agriculture in Mugla, said the price of pine honey has doubled from last year, threatening to make the popular breakfast food unaffordable for many Turks.

He expects price rises to continue and supplies to become ever more scarce.

“We will get to a point where even if you have money, you won’t be able to find those medicinal plants and medicinal honey,” Atici said.

“It’s going to be very hard to find 100-percent pine honey,” beekeeper Karayigit agreed. “We have had so much loss.”

– ‘We must continue’ –

Looking ahead, the president of the Turkey Beekeepers’ Association, Ziya Sahin, suggests selectively introducing the Basra beetle to new areas of Mugla, expanding coverage from the current seven to 25 percent of local pine forests.

“If we conduct transplantation of the beetle from one area to another and continue this for two successive years, we can protect the region’s dominance in the sector,” Sahin said.

“There will be a serious drop in honey production if we don’t do this,” he added, calling this year the “worst” of his 50-year career.

Yet despite the pain and the troubled road ahead, the younger Alti has no plans to quit.

“This is my father’s trade. Because this is passed down from the family, we must continue it,” Fehmi said.

Dawdon coalmine in northeast England was abandoned three decades ago, but is being brought back to life as the unlikely setting for a green energy revolution.

The carbon-intensive colliery, near the town of Seaham on the windswept northeast English coast, hauled coal from deep underground until its closure in 1991.

Dawdon has long since flooded with water because part of the mine is below sea level, and is heated by geothermal energy.

Authorities now want to capture and harness this valuable and unlimited green energy source to power a new garden village development.

“The heat is basically coming from the ground,” said Durham County Council official Mark Wilkes, whose portfolio includes climate change.

Water deep inside the mine heats up underground to about 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit).

At the colliery’s entrance, where thousands of miners once rushed to work, the vast pipes of a treatment plant now suck up the equivalent of a bathtub of warm water every two seconds, which is used to heat up a separate water supply.

In turn, this water circuit is heated via a pump until it reaches 55-60 degrees Celsius.

The plant treats the highly acidic and ferrous water in order to prevent contamination of local beaches and water supplies.

Its heat will eventually power local homes, while the treated water is released back into the sea.

– Industrial revolution turns green –

“We are taking what was from the industrial revolution — and we’re using it for the green revolution,” Wilkes told AFP.

Heat from the water has so far only been used for the heating of the facility.

But in two years’ time the local authority will create a new village of 1,500 homes nearby — entirely heated by the plant.

“It is an unlimited source of energy: the water is coming through all the time,” added Wilkes.

“There are costs with the technology, but hopefully this will help to keep the cap on those costs going forward.”

This is the first geothermal project on such a large scale in Britain, and Wilkes hopes it could also heat nearby businesses.

Britain is heavily dependent on natural gas for electricity generation, although Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who hosts the COP26 climate summit next month in Glasgow, wants to shift all UK energy production to renewable sources by 2035 to help reach carbon neutrality by 2050.

The urgency of the move was underlined by a surge in gas prices last week to record heights, stoked by economies reopening after coronavirus shutdowns and fears of spiking demand in the upcoming northern hemisphere winter.

Durham County Council has yet to name the company that will operate and partly finance the Dawdon plant.

The geothermal heating will not be cost-free but authorities hope it will be cheaper than using gas.

– Pretty low carbon –

“The heat pump uses an electrical input,” said Charlotte Adams, manager for mine energy at the UK Coal Authority industry body, which oversees old mines.

“So it’s not carbon-neutral, but it is energy efficient.

“But as you can imagine, over time the carbon content of electricity is decreasing, as we decarbonise our electricity supply.

“So over time, you’re getting close to something which is pretty low carbon.”

The process is four times more energy efficient than a purely electric heating system, Adams said.

The Dawdon green energy project will cost between £12 million and £15 million, funded via government, the plant’s future operating company and property fees.

With a big wheel, music and an appearance by CEO Elon Musk, Tesla pulled out all the stops Saturday to win over opponents of the electric carmaker’s controversial new “gigafactory” near Berlin.

Thousands of people were brought in by special shuttle buses, with long queues forming at the Gruenheide site of the US electric vehicle maker’s first European factory.

“I wanted to take a look. Tesla’s a great, very innovative car manufacturer,” said 25-year-old local resident Dominic, an engineer.

Construction at the plant had begun under an exceptional procedure granted by authorities two years ago, but opposition from locals over environmental concerns has held up final approval.

Demonstrators were already on the scene on Saturday morning, with a few people bearing signs like “Stop Tesla” and “water and forest aren’t for private profit” gathered around 100 metres (yards) from the site.

“It’s unbelievable that you can build a factory like this without permission,” said 69-year-old local activist Gurdrun Luebeck.

Musk appeared at the “Giga-Fest” in the afternoon, and had to battle problems with the teleprompter to deliver a few sentences in German beore continuing in English, stressing the company’s green credentials.

“What this factory is about is to bring high volumes of affordable electric cars… to accelerate the transition to sustainable energy,” he said to applause.

“We are ready to start production in a few months, basically November or December, and hopefully deliver our first cars in December,” he added.

– Environmental concerns –

Despite the local resistance, construction has been completed in double-quick time, replacing a swathe of pine forest with an enormous concrete-paved expanse accessed via “Tesla Road”.

The company has laid on a big wheel, electronic music and vegetarian food trucks — an event conceived in the image of Berlin, Europe’s party capital.

Tesla began construction at the site in Gruenheide in 2019 after receiving preliminary approval under a special procedure. 

But local authorities are still in the process of evaluating the environmental impact of the factory, despite the construction being all but finished.

The special treatment afforded to the company has angered some residents, who are concerned about the impact the plant could have on the water supply and biodiversity.

Supported by NGOs, opponents have sent letters, held protests and gone to court to try and stop the project.

Last year, work at the Tesla site was temporarily stopped after NGOs requested an injunction to protect the nearby natural habitat of endangered species of lizards and snakes while they were in their winter slumber.

A residents’ consultation, part of the approval process, is due to close on October 14.

Until the survey is completed, final approval cannot be given and production at the factory will not be allowed to begin.

Even then, the state environment ministry in Brandenburg, where the plant is located, told AFP “no date has been fixed” for this authorisation. 

– Economies of scale –

About 500,000 cars a year should roll off the line at the factory just outside Berlin, Tesla’s first production location in Europe.

Not all the attendees at Saturday’s party were convinced the region can take it.

“I’m sort of critical. There’s not enough roads, not enough space for a factory like this here,” said 35-year-old Marlen Winkler.

On the same 300-hectare plot, Musk also plans to build “the world’s biggest battery factory”.

And the site will equally boast the “world’s largest die-casting machine”, said Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, director of the Center for Automotive Research in Germany. 

In the event that the factory is not approved, the carmaker will be compelled to dismantle the entire works at its own cost.

Such a turn of events is, however, “unlikely”, said Dudenhoeffer, since the project has considerable “political support”.

“Every political party is in favour,” the car expert explained, while noting that changes to the factory facade could be requested by authorities, delaying the beginning of production further.

First planned for July 2021, the start has already been pushed back to the end of this year as a result of the company’s administrative troubles. 

Tesla was “irritated” by these setbacks, as it wrote in an open letter in March, in which the company called for a “reform” of Germany’s planning procedures. 

Despite the country’s reputation for efficiency, major infrastructure projects are often slowed down by excess bureaucracy.

Berlin’s new international airport opened in October 2020, eight years later than first planned, while the construction of a new train station in Stuttgart is not yet finished, having begun in 2010.

A children’s march to Buckingham Palace in central London on Saturday called for Britain’s Queen Elizabeth to back a new environmental approach on her estates and promote biodiversity across the country.

Scores of children and their parents joined the march across nearby Green Park to the queen’s official residence to deliver a petition with more than 100,000 signatures asking royals to “rewild” their land.

The throngs of children and adults, many of them wearing flowers in their hair, carried colourful banners and placards that urged the royal family to “rewild crown land”.

The petition asks the family to return hundreds of thousands of hectares of land it owns to its natural state, encouraging the return of native species before the UN’s COP26 climate summit hosted by Britain in October.

Campaigners calculate the royals own land equivalent to 1.4 percent of the UK, much of which they say could be used to encourage nature.

TV presenter and naturalist Chris Packham, who led the march, said the demonstrators wanted to see the royals  make the change on the “800,000 acres of land that they have in the UK,” calling the march “the most harmonious, beautiful and peaceful demonstration”.

csp/pvh

La Palma airport in Spain’s Canary Islands reopened Saturday after a 48-hour closure because of volcanic ash, with airlines hoping to resume flights later in the day.

Clouds of thick ash from the volcano had shuttered the airport on Thursday morning for the second time since the September 19 eruption on La Palma, one of the Spanish islands off the northwestern coast of Morocco.

“La Palma airport is back in operation,” Spain’s AENA airport authority tweeted, adding that cleaning work was ongoing and without saying when flights would be resumed. 

Local Canaries airline Binter said it was “analysing” conditions and hopeful it could resume flights later in the day. 

“We hope everything will be ready to operate in the next few hours,” a spokeswoman told AFP. 

Thick ash had forced the airport to close down on September 25 but although it reopened 24 hours later, flights did not resume for another three days. 

It has been almost three weeks since La Cumbre Vieja began erupting, forcing 6,000 people from their homes as the lava has scorched its way across 1,200 acres of land. 

Earlier on Saturday, part of the volcano’s cone collapsed, sending several new rivers of lava pouring down the slopes towards an industrial zone. 

“It seems part of the cone has collapsed… giving way to two different lava flows,” volcanologist Stavros Meletlidis of Spain’s National Geographic Institute told RNE radio. 

He said one had opened a new path, while the other was following the path of an earlier flow “but with a higher volume of lava, looking like it will overspill the old flow at some point.”

The new lava flows were approaching an industrial area populated with warehouses and businesses, the radio said. 

According to the latest snapshot from the EU’s Copernicus satellite — taken before the overnight events — the lava had covered almost 1,200 acres (480.5 hectares) of land and destroyed 1,149 properties. 

It has also destroyed huge swathes of banana plantations — the chief cash crop on La Palma. 

“New lava flows have mainly damaged agricultural areas now totalling 120 hectares of crops (300 acres), half of them bananas,” the Canaries volcanic emergencies committee (Pevolca) said on Friday. 

Dozens more earthquakes took place overnight, including one with a magnitude of 4.3, the IGN said on Twitter. 

With a big wheel, music and an appearance by CEO Elon Musk, Tesla is pulling out all the stops Saturday to win over opponents of the electric carmaker’s controversial new “gigafactory” near Berlin.

Long queues of people brought by special shuttle buses were already forming at the Gruenheide site of Tesla’s first European factory around 10 am (0800 GMT).

“I wanted to take a look. Tesla’s a great, very innovative car manufacturer,” said 25-year-old local resident Dominic, an engineer.

Construction at the plant had begun under an exceptional procedure granted by authorities two years ago, but opposition from locals over environmental concerns has held up final approval.

Demonstrators were already on the scene on Saturday morning, with a few people bearing signs like “Stop Tesla” and “water and forest aren’t for private profit” gathered around 100 metres (yards) from the site.

“It’s unbelieveable that you can build a factory like this without permission,” said 69-year-old local activist Gurdrun Luebeck.

Musk, expected to appear later at the “Giga-Fest”, tweeted simply “Giga Berlin-Brandenburg fun party today” in German on Saturday morning.

The company has laid on a big wheel, electronic music and vegetarian food trucks — an event conceived in the image of Berlin, Europe’s party capital.

Thousands are expected to attend, with locals given priority for the guest list announced by Tesla earlier this week.

– Environmental concerns –

Tesla began construction at the site in Gruenheide in 2019 after receiving preliminary approval under a special procedure. 

But local authorities are still in the process of evaluating the environmental impact of the factory, despite construction being all but done.

The special treatment afforded to the company angered some residents, who are concerned about the impact the plant could have on the water supply and biodiversity.

Supported by NGOs, opponents have sent letters, held protests and gone to court to try and stop the project.

“Tesla has to follow the same procedures as other companies,” the Green League campaign group said recently.

Last year, work at the Tesla site was temporarily stopped after NGOs requested an injunction to protect the nearby natural habitat of endangered species of lizards and snakes while they were in their winter slumber.

A residents’ consultation, part of the approval process, is due to close on October 14.

Until the survey is completed, final approval cannot be given and production at the factory will not be allowed to begin.

Even then, the state environment ministry in Brandenburg, where the plant is located, told AFP “no date has been fixed” for this authorisation. 

Despite local resistance, construction has been completed in double-quick time, replacing a swathe of pine forest with an enormous concrete-paved expanse accessed via “Tesla Road”.

– Economies of scale –

About 500,000 cars a year should roll off the line at the factory just outside Berlin, Tesla’s first production location in Europe.

Not all the attendees at Saturday’s party were convinced the region can take it.

“I’m sort of critical. There’s not enough roads, not enough space for a factory like this here,” said 35-year-old Marlen Winkler.

On the same 300-hectare plot, Musk also plans to build “the world’s biggest battery factory”.

And the site will equally boast the “world’s largest die-casting machine”, said Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, director of the Center for Automotive Research in Germany. 

The custom-built equipment should allow Tesla to “significantly reduce production costs”, Dudenhoeffer said.

In the event that the factory is not approved, the carmaker will be compelled to dismantle the entire works at its own cost.

Such a turn of events is, however, “unlikely”, said Dudenhoeffer, since the project has considerable “political support”.

“Every political party is in favour,” the car expert explained, while noting that changes to the factory facade could be requested by authorities, delaying the beginning of production further.

First planned for July 2021, the start has already been pushed back to the end of this year as a result of the company’s administrative troubles. 

Tesla was “irritated” by these setbacks, as it wrote in an open letter in March, in which the company called for a “reform” of Germany’s planning procedures. 

Despite the country’s reputation for efficiency, major infrastructure projects are often slowed down by excess bureaucracy.

Berlin’s new international airport opened in October 2020, eight years later than first planned, while the construction of a new train station in Stuttgart is not yet finished, having begun in 2010.

With a big wheel, music and an appearance by CEO Elon Musk, Tesla is pulling out all the stops Saturday to win over opponents of the electric carmaker’s controversial new “gigafactory” near Berlin.

Construction had begun under an exceptional procedure granted by authorities two years ago, but opposition from locals over environmental concerns has held up final approval for the plant.

Some local residents have planned a counter-protest at the site on the day of the event to underline their opposition to the factory.

Musk will personally drop by at the “Giga Fest”, where the company has laid on a big wheel, electronic music and vegetarian food trucks — an event conceived in the image of Berlin, Europe’s party capital.

Thousands are expected to attend, with locals given priority for the guest list announced by Tesla earlier this week.

Devotees of the brand shared their excitement ahead of the day on social media. “Gigafest here we come. Thrilled to see what they have built in my hometown,” tweeted one.

The project’s opponents are planning another form of welcome. “Let’s take to the streets against this environmental devastation pushed by politicians,” is the call made by protest organisers.

– Environmental concerns –

Tesla began construction at the site in Gruenheide in 2019 after receiving preliminary approval under a special procedure. 

But local authorities are still in the process of evaluating the environmental impact of the factory, despite construction being all but done.

The special treatment afforded to the company angered some residents, who are concerned about the impact the plant could have on the water supply and biodiversity.

Supported by NGOs, opponents have sent letters, held protests and gone to court to try and stop the project.

“Tesla has to follow the same procedures as other companies,” the Green League campaign group said recently.

Last year, work at the Tesla site was temporarily stopped after NGOs requested an injunction to protect the nearby natural habitat of endangered species of lizards and snakes while they were in their winter slumber.

A residents’ consultation, part of the approval process, is due to close on October 14.

Until the survey is completed, final approval cannot be given and production at the factory will not be allowed to begin.

Even then, the state environment ministry in Brandenburg, where the plant is located, told AFP “no date has been fixed” for this authorisation. 

Despite local resistance, construction has been completed in double-quick time, replacing a swathe of pine forest with an enormous concrete-paved expanse accessed via “Tesla Road”.

– Economies of scale –

About 500,000 cars a year should roll off the line at the factory just outside Berlin, Tesla’s first production location in Europe.

On the same 300-hectare plot, Musk also plans to build “the world’s biggest battery factory”.

The site will equally boast the “world’s largest die-casting machine”, said Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, director of the Center for Automotive Research in Germany. 

The custom-built equipment should allow Tesla to “significantly reduce production costs”, Dudenhoeffer said.

In the event that the factory is not approved, the carmaker will be compelled to dismantle the entire works at its own cost.

Such a turn of events is, however, “unlikely”, said Dudenhoeffer, since the project has considerable “political support”.

“Every political party is in favour,” the car expert explained, while noting that changes to the factory facade could be requested by authorities, delaying the beginning of production further.

First planned for July 2021, the start has already been pushed back to the end of this year as a result of the company’s administrative troubles. 

Tesla was “irritated” by these setbacks, as it wrote in an open letter in March, in which the company called for a “reform” of Germany’s planning procedures. 

Despite the country’s reputation for efficiency, major infrastructure projects are often slowed down by excess bureaucracy.

Berlin’s new international airport opened in October 2020 eight years later than first planned, while the construction of a new train station in Stuttgart is not yet finished, having begun in 2010.

With a big wheel, music and an appearance by CEO Elon Musk, Tesla is pulling out all the stops Saturday to win over opponents of the electric carmaker’s controversial new “gigafactory” near Berlin.

Construction had begun under an exceptional procedure granted by authorities two years ago, but opposition from locals over environmental concerns has held up final approval for the plant.

Some local residents have planned a counter-protest at the site on the day of the event to underline their opposition to the factory.

Musk will personally drop by at the “Giga Fest”, where the company has laid on a big wheel, electronic music and vegetarian food trucks — an event conceived in the image of Berlin, Europe’s party capital.

Thousands are expected to attend, with locals given priority for the guest list announced by Tesla earlier this week.

Devotees of the brand shared their excitement ahead of the day on social media. “Gigafest here we come. Thrilled to see what they have built in my hometown,” tweeted one.

The project’s opponents are planning another form of welcome. “Let’s take to the streets against this environmental devastation pushed by politicians,” is the call made by protest organisers.

– Environmental concerns –

Tesla began construction at the site in Gruenheide in 2019 after receiving preliminary approval under a special procedure. 

But local authorities are still in the process of evaluating the environmental impact of the factory, despite construction being all but done.

The special treatment afforded to the company angered some residents, who are concerned about the impact the plant could have on the water supply and biodiversity.

Supported by NGOs, opponents have sent letters, held protests and gone to court to try and stop the project.

“Tesla has to follow the same procedures as other companies,” the Green League campaign group said recently.

Last year, work at the Tesla site was temporarily stopped after NGOs requested an injunction to protect the nearby natural habitat of endangered species of lizards and snakes while they were in their winter slumber.

A residents’ consultation, part of the approval process, is due to close on October 14.

Until the survey is completed, final approval cannot be given and production at the factory will not be allowed to begin.

Even then, the state environment ministry in Brandenburg, where the plant is located, told AFP “no date has been fixed” for this authorisation. 

Despite local resistance, construction has been completed in double-quick time, replacing a swathe of pine forest with an enormous concrete-paved expanse accessed via “Tesla Road”.

– Economies of scale –

About 500,000 cars a year should roll off the line at the factory just outside Berlin, Tesla’s first production location in Europe.

On the same 300-hectare plot, Musk also plans to build “the world’s biggest battery factory”.

The site will equally boast the “world’s largest die-casting machine”, said Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, director of the Center for Automotive Research in Germany. 

The custom-built equipment should allow Tesla to “significantly reduce production costs”, Dudenhoeffer said.

In the event that the factory is not approved, the carmaker will be compelled to dismantle the entire works at its own cost.

Such a turn of events is, however, “unlikely”, said Dudenhoeffer, since the project has considerable “political support”.

“Every political party is in favour,” the car expert explained, while noting that changes to the factory facade could be requested by authorities, delaying the beginning of production further.

First planned for July 2021, the start has already been pushed back to the end of this year as a result of the company’s administrative troubles. 

Tesla was “irritated” by these setbacks, as it wrote in an open letter in March, in which the company called for a “reform” of Germany’s planning procedures. 

Despite the country’s reputation for efficiency, major infrastructure projects are often slowed down by excess bureaucracy.

Berlin’s new international airport opened in October 2020 eight years later than first planned, while the construction of a new train station in Stuttgart is not yet finished, having begun in 2010.