Lion Hirth

Prof. Dr. Lion Hirth is founder and director of Neon, a boutique energy economics consulting firm, and Professor of Energy Policy at Hertie School. Trained as an economist, he specializes in electricity markets, power systems, and energy policy. Lion has advised clients from the private and public sector, including Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs, the European Commission, the International Energy Agency, energy regulators, grid operators, utilities, and commodity trading houses. He served on Germany’s Gas Commission and is a member of the Franco-German Council of Economic Experts.

His academic articles are published in the top energy economics and engineering journals, have won several awards and are among the most cited in the field. His focus areas are grid tariffs, congestion management, the economics of renewables, balancing, and flexibility and electric vehicles. Before his academic career, Lion spent five years with the Swedish utility Vattenfall.

Prof. Dr. Lion Hirth

Prof. Dr. Lion Hirth
hirth@neon.energy
+49 157 55 199 715

Curriculum vitae (PDF)

Positions

A leg in academia and another in advisory, Lion combines scientific rigor with deep sector knowledge.

  • Founder and director of Neon Neue Energieökonomik (since 2014)
  • Professor of Energy Policy at Hertie School (since 2017)
  • Postdoctoral researcher at the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (2014–16)
  • Market analyst at Vattenfall Group Strategy (2009–14)

Education

Lion is trained in climate and energy economics and in quantitative methods.

  • Ph.D. in Economics, TU Berlin, 2014. “The Economics of Wind and Solar Variability”, summa cum laude, supervised by Ottmar Edenhofer
  • Diploma in Economics, University of Tübingen, 2009. Best economics degree of his year
  • Magister Artium in Political Science, University of Tübingen, 2010

Academic publications

Lion has published 42 articles in peer-reviewed economics and engineering journals. Google Scholar lists more than 10,000 citations and an h-index of 40; RePEc ranks him among the top 5% of energy economists.

Selected projects

Lion has worked on electricity market design for two decades, helping policymakers create markets and advising private sector clients navigating them.

Public debate

Lion has shaped public debate on the energy crisis, the German bidding zone split, locational pricing, and renewables support. He writes op-eds for national and European outlets, comments in broadcast and print media, and reaches more than 80,000 followers on social media.

  • Lokale Preise, op-ed, ifo Schnelldienst, 2025
  • Die Energiewende günstiger machen, op-ed, FAZ, 2025
  • Der deutsche Strommarkt braucht lokale Preise, op-ed, FAZ, 2024
  • Protecting electricity consumers from (more) price shocks, op-ed, Euractiv, 2023
  • The Iberian electricity market intervention does not work for Europe, op-ed, VoxEU/CEPR, 2022
  • Wie Europa auf Putins Gaslieferstopp reagieren kann, op-ed, Handelsblatt, 2022
  • All op-eds and interviews (PDF)

Teaching

At Hertie School, Lion teaches graduate courses on electricity systems and markets, energy policy, and numerical methods. He received the School’s Excellence in Teaching Award and has supervised more than 100 master students and six doctoral candidates. With Neon, he educates energy professionals in our Executive Education courses.

Honors

  • Member of the Franco-German Council of Economic Experts, 2025
  • Member of the Gas Commission of the German government, 2022
  • Top 40 under 40, Capital, 2020, ‘21, ‘22
  • Excellence in Teaching Award, Hertie School, 2018
  • Open Science Award of Schleswig-Holstein for Open Power System Data, 2017
  • Best working paper award, International Association for Energy Economics, 2014
  • Scholarship, Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes, 2005–10
  • All honors (PDF)