It is a great pleasure for me to
write the forewords for this special issue of the International
Scientific Journal for Alternative Energy and Ecology, devoted to
France and french speaking (or partially french speaking) countries of
the south.
This
volume is the result of a call for papers launched in june 2007 with
the aim to give an overview on the research in the field of alternative
energy and ecology in the mentioned geographical zone. To stimulate the
international contacts and collaborations we proposed to publish also a
short description of laboratories, groups, and institutes participating
in this activity.
Obviously,
our goal has only partially been reached, even if we received about one
hundred propositions of papers: because of the “information screening”
caused by the explosive development and competition in the field of
renewable energies and related topics, several important french institutes are not yet represented
in this special issue. In contrast, we have a vast representation of
african french speaking countries that, albeit being potentially the
main consumers of the renewable energy technologies, are frequently
with an insufficient access to international journals. It is indeed
important to keep in mind that the most important solar resources are
located on the african continent, and that only few percents of the
area of the Sahara region being covered by solar powerplants could
satisfy the contemporary needs in the electrical energy!
The
regain of interest in the field of renewable energies is clearly caused
both by the explosive increase of prices of the non-renewable energy
sources and by the global tendency of climate warming that is the
origin of the present collective awareness. In this respect, we are
certainly still only at the beginning of activities in this field:
first because the pressure of civil societies on the scientific
community will increase in future, with the confirmation of the
emergency to find new solutions, then because a maturity of scientific
groups working in this field will occur, and finally because the
corresponding market will likely appear to be a motor of world economy
in future.
This situation should reasonably result in
the enhancement of north-south collaboration in this field and in
number of related fields, and we hope that the information published in
this issue about southern institutions will encourage further
north-south collaboration contacts.
next page
|