Watch saviour turns attention to environment

Hayek is a man on a mission pixsil

Two decades after saving the ailing Swiss watch industry, Nicolas Hayek tells swissinfo why he is turning his attention to breathing new life into the environment.

The Swatch chairman has founded a new company, Belenos Clean Power, to research ways of harnessing solar power to produce hydrogen without emitting greenhouse gases.

Hayek believes a new generation of hydrogen-powered cars could be on the market within three years.

swissinfo: What has pricked your environmental conscience?

Nicolas Hayek: I realised a long time ago that I am a small ant on a very small planet, in a very small sun system, in a very huge universe.

Our planet Earth is a very vulnerable spaceship. We are shooting holes in it, knocking down the doors and doing everything to destroy it. As one of the passengers sitting there, I try to help.

swissinfo: Are you frustrated that not enough people are doing something practical about the problem?

N.H.: Everybody wants to do something but very few people know how to create things. The very nature of humans is that we are all different people with our own strengths.

If you would ask me to win the gold medal in the pole vault at the next Olympics I would not be very successful. But if you ask me to organise something like this I will probably be successful. There are not too many people who know how to create things, but it is my job.

swissinfo: Are politicians helping to solve the problem?

N.H.: How can a politician, who does not know too much about science, solve this problem? If you were the president of Switzerland what could you do to solve this problem?

If you wanted to put SFr200 million ($192 million) into research and development the parliament would say no. If you wanted to forbid half of the Swiss people to drive themselves every day and make them share cars they would vote you down. If you double the price of oil your companies would tell the press that the government is crazy.

I do not criticise politicians for doing nothing because it is not their duty. It’s like asking a very good painter why he did not operate on me after my heart attack. The best politicians in the world are Swiss, but they still cannot solve this problem because it’s not their duty.

swissinfo: What stage are we at right now in hydrogen car technology?

N.H.: With the systems we now have, you can get 500 hours of work out of an engine that costs SFr 50,000 to SFr70,000 before you have to replace it.

If you drive on average two and a half hours a day, the engine will last seven months. People are not going pay SFr70,000 for a new engine and another SFr30,000 for labour this often.

We need an engine that costs SFr18,000 and that will last at least 5,000 hours before you have to replace it.

swissinfo: What is your opinion of biofuels?

N.H.: Biofuels were a mistake. When we started making the Swatch car we asked a company to research biofuel engines. When I went into the garage where we were conducting tests it was the nicest smell I had experienced in my whole life – it was like pommes frites.

The only problem is that later we find out that you still produce C02 making these fuels, so you are not solving the problem at all – you are only solving the problem of buying very expensive oil.

And what we did not think at that time is that people would be dying of hunger in the world today [as a result of biofuel production].

swissinfo-interview: Matthew Allen

Nicolas Hayek

Born in Lebanon in 1928, Nicolas Hayek made his name by saving the Swiss watch industry from collapse in the 1980s. He formed the Swatch Group and is currently chairman of the board.

Having previously worked with the automobile industry as a consultant, Hayek built a solar powered car, called “Spirit of Biel”, 20 years ago.

He also designed the Smart Car, originally intended to be run on a hybrid engine, but pulled out of the project before it was put onto the market.

He is also chairman of the Hayek Group.

Belenos project

Belenos Clean Power is named after the sun god of the Celts and was founded last year. Hollywood actor George Clooney and Swiss astronaut Claude Nicollier are on the board.

Belenos is collaborating with Fribourg power firm Group E, the Federal Institute of Technology, the Paul Scherrer Institute and other worldwide enterprises.

It is researching ways of producing hydrogen by using solar energy, increasing the efficiency of hydrogen-powered car fuel cells, batteries and photovoltaic panels.

The company plans to patent its research and sell licences to the automobile industry. Hayek believes it will be profitable in five years’ time.