• Print
• E-Mail
• Feedback

06/10/2010

SPIEGEL ONLINE: You have been working on a solar-powered airplane for almost 10 years. But not a single tourist or business traveler will ever fly in your plane. What's the point of the project?

Bertrand Piccard: To be frank, the airplane is not the most important thing to me. It is a means to an end. The message is the important thing -- that's what I've been working on for over the last 10 years. It is only because of this project that people listen to me when I speak about the things that matter to me. I want to make clear that we have the technology today to end our dependence on fossil fuels.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Which is why your plane relies on solar power.

Piccard: Yes, and we did not have to develop new solar cells or batteries. Basically, we utilize technologies that you can use in your house, your car or wherever. Of course it is difficult to build a solar-powered plane that flies day and night. You have to optimize some things.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: But there will be no technological spin-offs from the project?

Piccard: Everything is already there. Spin-offs are not important to me. I want to make sure that the people out there follow our adventure and understand that they can save energy and that they can use alternative power sources -- just like we do.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: To spread this message, you have become something of an itinerant preacher around the globe.

Piccard: I can reach millions of people a year through interviews and presentations. I would also like to exert an influence on political decisions. For example, I would love to speak to the delegates of the next United Nations climate conference in Mexico.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: What would you tell them if you got the opportunity?

Piccard: That the current debate is missing the point. We should not speak only about the costs of adapting to climate change. Our problem is not climate change but our dependence on fossil fuels. If you reframe it like this, you understand that there are lots of solutions to the problem. And these opportunities are profitable. It is not a question of costs anymore, but of profits.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: After the failure of the Copenhagen climate summit, it seems that a lot of the momentum for saving the climate has dissipated -- even if you present it as a job-creation machine.

Piccard: Nobody these days would find it acceptable to simply empty their trash can in the forest. But at the same time you are allowed to emit as much CO2 into the atmosphere as you want. Is this normal? Countries have to agree on ambitious rules to protect the climate. We need strict limits on energy consumption and CO2 emissions. But we should not tell industry how to reach these goals. They will find the best methods.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: A lot of managers don't share your desire for strict rules on energy consumption and climate protection.

Piccard: There are stupid people everywhere, that's for sure. If General Motors, for example, had been obliged to produce more fuel-efficient cars 10 years ago, they would not have gone bankrupt. It's not a question of regulating companies out of business, but of making them able to survive.

• 1
• | 2
• Next

• Part 1: 'We Have the Technology to End Our Dependence on Fossil Fuels'
• Part 2: 'You Are Totally on Your Own in the Cockpit'