FOREWORDS OF THE DEPUTY EDITOR-IN-CHIEF FOR FRANCE

AND SOUTHERN FRENCH SPEAKING COUNTRIES,

GUEST-EDITOR OF THIS SPECIAL ISSUE

Professor Pierre Saint-Gregoire

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.

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