French Eco and Renewable Magazines

[rhys]

Well having just had a few days in France, I was struck by several French Mags devoted to all things renewable and eco friendly.
Unlike our own Newsagents shelves there seemed to be a number of renewable mags aimed at the general reader.
My French varies from the total carp to none at all, " Je parle Francais comme une vache Espagnole",  but I still bought one mag and spent a few days with a French dictionary!!
"L' Eco Habitat" special edition by Groupe De Particulier a Particulier.
Good read for anyone on the forum in France with lots on Frence tax subsidies for renewables, Solar and pV's wind etc.
Shame they don't have a English version.
Still at least I now know my Ouduleur from my Panneaux de Photovtaiques.

[Amy]

It doesnt surprise me at all.

What makes Britain Great is a mystery sometimes cos when you look at how organised and efficient other countries are and can be, compared with the lumbering and oft archaic systems we have to debate, review, authorise etc new projects, its a wonder we once owned half the world and won two world wars.

Portugal wasted no time in buying the the British Polamis system of wave generation.
The french have no qualms about continuing to invest in clean controlable nuclear
The Spanish have more plans to expand the solar tower.

Given that all these things cant just be bought in the morning and plugged in by lunchtime, why do we have to wait till past bed time to realise its something we should have had yesterday?

Still proud to be British though.

[Capcave]

One thing to bear in mind with the French subsidies - they look great. However the reality is it is, in general, not worth getting them. For example you can get 50% rebate when you put in a woodburner. They have to be a model that is approved for the tax rebate (largely French models) and have to be installed by a professional installer (fair enough). The problem comes that installers will usually not put it in unless they supply it and funnily enough the approved models are twice as expensive as anything else after the installer put his little margin on it. I could go on with other examples as well (it takes years and a lot of hair pulling to get a grid feedback connection). I've just gone ahead and done stuff under my own steam - much quicker and cheaper. The nuclear power station is being put in the barn tomorrow

[Amy]

Well under the Clear Skies government grant scheme, its the same with grants only being given to systems that are more expensive to start with and installed by a select few.

Plough your own furrow and stand alone, .....proud.