The Neon team
Lion Hirth
Prof. Dr. Lion Hirth is founder and director of Neon. He is an energy economist and expert in renewable energy, electricity market design, and energy policy. Lion has advised clients across the private and public sectors and has worked extensively with Germany’s DoE. Teaching energy economics and policy at Hertie School, he also helps training the next generation of decision-makers. 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.
Ingmar Schlecht
Dr. Ingmar Schlecht is principal consultant at Neon. He is an energy economist focusing, on electricity market design, ancillary service procurement and power grid modelling. Ingmar has advised clients in the industry and public sector and worked intensively with Germany’s energy ministry on ancillary services procurement, redispatch markets and open-source energy modeling. As a PhD and postdoctoral researcher at University of Basel, he has developed the electricity market model Swissmod and coordinated two system adequacy studies for the Swiss government.
Jonathan Mühlenpfordt
Jonathan Mühlenpfordt is a senior consultant at Neon. He is an economist and an expert on data analysis, especially for power system data. Jonathan has advised clients across the private and public sectors, including Germany’s Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and the European Commission. He is well versed in a number of programming languages, including Python and R. He has worked on the implementation of the Open Power System Data platform and on a review of the ENTSO-E Transparency Platform.
Anselm Eicke
Anselm Eicke is senior consultant at Neon since 2022. He specializes on the regulation of the power sector and advises public and private clients on electricity market. Prior, Anselm was research associate and PhD candidate at the Hertie School in Berlin, where he focused on the regulation of power systems with high shares of renewables. He also worked at Leibniz University Hannover, the German development agency (GIZ) in Mexico and the Bundesverband der Energie- und Wasserwirtschaft (BDEW) in Brussels. Anselm holds a master’s degree in International Energy from Sciences Po Paris and a bachelor’s degree in Energy Engineering from the Technical University of Berlin.
Clemens Lohr
Dr. Clemens Lohr is a consultant at Neon and an expert in energy system analysis. His work has a focus on prosumer flexibility. He earned his Master’s degree in Industrial Engineering (M.Sc.) from Leibniz University Hannover, where he later completed his PhD on the distribution of renewable energy and flexibility in climate-neutral energy systems. During his studies, Clemens gained practical experience at a regional distribution network operator, a municipal utility, and an energy service provider.
Vlada Maksimova
Vlada Maksimova is a consultant at Neon, working on projects on electricity network tariffs and flexibility. She holds a Master’s degree in Industrial Engineering and Management with a focus on energy and resource management from the Technical University of Berlin. During her studies, Vlada gained experience in various companies in the energy industry: a wind farm developer and operator, a transmission system operator and an energy consulting company.
Anton Hoffmann
Anton Hoffmann is a consultant at Neon, advising on funding mechanisms for renewable energy. He holds a Master in Public Policy from the Hertie School, specializing in energy economics and policy, and subsequently worked there as a Research Associate. During his studies, he gained experience in the public sector, consulting, and political advocacy.
Alexander Neef
Dr. Alexander Neef is a consultant at Neon and is focusing on solar overshoot and local signals in electricity markets. Prior to Neon, he was working on energy topics in the German Bundestag with a scholarship by the Wilhelm-and-Else-Heraeus foundation. He holds a PhD in physics from TU Berlin and published in Nature.