Energy Systems and Sustainability : Power for a Sustainable Future

A fresh, contemporary perspective on energy and sustainability for an undergraduate audience

Godfrey Boyle is professor of renewable energy and director of the Energy and Environment Research Unit in The Open University's Faculty of Mathematics, Computing and Technology. He has chaired the Open University teams that have produced various Open University courses and study packs on renewable and sustainable energy, most recently 'Energy for a Sustainable Future'. His main research interests are in renewable energy, particularly wind and solar power, energy systems modelling and energy policy.

He is also a visiting professor at The Energy and Resource Institute (TERI) University in New Delhi, India, Trustee of the National Energy Foundation in the UK and Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, UK (formerly the Institution of Electrical Engineers).

Dr Bob Everett is lecturer in renewable technology in The Open University's Faculty of Mathematics, Computing and Technology. His background is in electronics, working in the 1970s on computer phototypesetting and a patent for using random dots of ink to print pictures (as used in modern ink jet printers). He has worked on energy issues since 1977, initially on computer modelling of active and passive solar heating, later on the monitoring of large scale housing field trials, leading to an Open University PhD in 1989. Since then Bob has continued research work on combined heat and power systems and office energy use at The Open University, the Martin Centre at Cambridge University, the Building Research Establishment and University College London.


Bob has been involved in the development and teaching of Open University courses on energy and environment issues since 1993. He was contributing author to the first and second editions of Renewable Energy (Oxford University Press, 1996 and 2004) in addition, he was author and editor of the first edition of Energy Systems and Sustainability (Oxford University Press, 2003). He has also contributed chapters to a number of other energy publications

Dr Stephen Peake is senior lecturer in environmental technology at The Open University and fellow at the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, where he leads courses on sustainability and climate leadership. Over the last 19 years, Stephen has worked on climate change in various interesting guises: as a researcher at the University of Cambridge, as a fellow of the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London (including a stint at the Shell International Petroleum Company), as a Fonctionnaire at the International Energy Agency within the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris, and as a diplomat with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Bonn, Germany.

Over the years, he has been called on to give evidence to various national governments and international organisations including: the Fuel Economy Panel of the American Automobile Manufacturers Association in Detroit, USA; the Standing Advisory Committee on Trunk Road Assessment; and the UK Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution. He is author of seven authored books and numerous articles on energy, transport and climate change.

Dr Janet Ramage is a visiting lecturer at The Open University, and was an editor and contributing author to the first edition of Energy Systems and Sustainability (Oxford University Press, 2003). Her academic background is in physics, and her first post after completing her studies in London was as a lecturer at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). Returning to London, she was attracted by the growing interest in energy studies in the late 1970s, and began to develop short courses in this field, including multi-disciplinary 'modules' within a degree program and courses for physics teachers. A sabbatical year spent at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and Harvard led to the publication of Energy, A Guidebook (Oxford University Press, 1983). Intended as an