Shai Agassi: Energy is our Biggest Problem

Born in Israel, Shai Agassi was a member of the executive board of Germany-based SAP, the world's largest business software company. He resigned in March 2007 to focus on his interests in alternative energy and climate change. In October 2007, the 39-year-old founded Project Better Place, a company that's working on a green transportation infrastructure based on electric cars as an alternative to fossil fuel technology.

DW-TV: What will things be like in 2030?

Shai Agassi: My belief is that you will not see cars going on oil. We take oil out of the ground and look how hard it is to find oil today. There are now oil-rigs that go 12,000 feet (3,650 meters) into water and then another 6,000 feet into the ground -- to find oil. It is a technological marvel. But why would you do this? If we can find cheaper, easier ways to drive our cars, to energize our cars we are probably going to do that.

I think you are also going to have a different experience with water: We do not think about it today. But there is a growing population of people that do not have drinking water. Yet in most of the western world, we use water to flush our sewage. Why would you take clean water and use it for sewage. It makes absolutely no sense. There was an economy of abundance and we are going to shift into an economy of constraints. And when you shift into the economy of constraints, you have to come in with technological improvements to change the way we do things.

We are going to need energy, we are going to need water and we are going to need food. Those three fundamentals will get a lot more attention, for example, than medicine today. We will run out of clean water, we've already run out of easy energy. And we will run out of food.

What is your favourite technological, futuristic gimmick?

I would say that energy is probably the biggest problem that we are facing today. If we do not solve the energy crisis, the lack of energy, all the other good things will not happen. We are going to get wars. The biggest wars in the world were either started or ended as result of energy issues. If I look at the fundamental things that are happening right now, they are all geared towards creating materials or engineering materials that will solve energy problems. And I think that is the most exiting part of the world right now in technology.

What is driving you personally to shape the future?

I think two things. One: You wake up in the morning, you see the eyes of your kids and you have a huge responsibility to the next generation to do something with the power you are given. All Young Global Leaders have been tremendously lucky. We have been fortunate to get education at a young age, we have been fortunate to be successful and we have been fortunate to be able to take risk. Some of us have been fortunate to face adversity in a way that has actually made us grow. What do you do with it? If you worry about your personal wealth or personal benefits you are wasting this gift -- that you are here. So what I am mostly worried about is: How do I give back? I am getting to 40, what do you give back in he next 40 years? It is a huge responsibility. If you do not take it as an opportunity to serve and an opportunity to give, you are really wasting God's gift. I think that motivates me to wake up in the morning and go to try to solve the biggest problem that I can solve in a successful way.