Many people have helped this project in so many ways. Jen Ren and Liz Snook did a whole lot more illustration and design work than we had funds to pay for, and really cared about the project and what it was all about. Thanks Liz for the gorgeous illustrations, and Jen for being part of those conceptual conversations and  the hours of less glamorous work of web design, graph and table formatting. And for prancing around in a coal mine with me and a massive stack of paper. Jon Turney from Zero West for proof reading and making my sentences shorter. Jodie Giles and Ray Arrell at Regen for technical review of the money flows and governance chapters – thanks for adding your expertise. All errors my own. Kate Burningham at the University of Surrey for finding the funding that enabled this to get out into the world, and for your support during and after my doctorate, along with Ian Christie. Ben Smallwood and Alasdair Young at BuroHappold for sharing your insights about the major challenges facing our future energy system. Christine Berry for helping me situate this work in the context of wider economic democracy. Jonathan Atkinson and Ben Aylott at Carbon Co-op for being part of the early part of this process. Ben wrote an early draft of the physics of energy and electricity chapters, and Jonathan enthusiastically supported the early structuring of the document (which we’d imagined as much shorter). Leo Murray, Max Wakefield, Dan Quiggin, James Angel, Mika Minio-Paluelo and bits of the climate movement – for conversations about energy systems, energy democracy, community energy over the years, and being an imagined intended audience – although now you know most of this.  Trevor Haughton for sharing your teaching resources and approach, and your support and feedback. Miriam for writing retreats and poems, and my family for your support and believing in my work. And finally the late Sir David MacKay, who wrote Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air, and has been a long term inspiration. Thank you.

Thank you to BuroHappold and the EPSRC for funding my EngD with the University of Surrey, where some of the research behind this work was developed, and to the EPSRC IAA fund for supporting the development of this guide. Thanks also to Lush for funding the design and illustration, and to Zero West for partnering on this process.