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.
Silvana Tiedemann
Silvana Tiedemann, Managing Director of Neon, is an expert in energy policy and economics. She has over ten years of experience advising public and private stakeholders. Her areas of specialization include electricity market design, the structuring of auctions for renewables and other energy sources, as well as demand-side flexibility. She studied physics at Freie Universität Berlin and energy and climate policy at SOAS, University of London. She is currently completing her PhD at the Hertie School.
Ingmar Schlecht
Dr. Ingmar Schlecht is Partner and 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.
Anselm Eicke
Dr. Anselm Eicke is Partner at Neon. He is an energy economist with a technical background and primarily works on the interaction between electricity grids and markets. This includes topics such as local signals, demand-side flexibility, grid tariffs, and grid access regulation. Previously, Anselm worked at Leibniz University Hannover, for GIZ in Mexico, and for BDEW in Brussels. He earned his PhD from Hertie School, holds a master’s degree in International Energy from Sciences Po Paris, and a B.Sc. in Energy and Process Engineering from TU Berlin.
Jonathan Mühlenpfordt
Jonathan Mühlenpfordt is Senior Consultant. 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.
Johanna Bronisch
Dr. Johanna Bronisch is a Senior Consultant at Neon, focussing on decentral flexibility, e-mobility, and grid fees. She previously established Energy Innovation as an independent initiative at UnternehmerTUM. In this role, she acquired significant experience in managing multi-client projects, mentoring startups, and implementing innovation methods in the energy sector. Johanna holds a B.Sc. in Psychology and an M.Sc. in Neuroscience from UCL, and a Ph.D. in Computational Neuroscience from Humboldt University Berlin.
Clemens Lohr
Dr. Clemens Lohr is Consultant 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.
Alexander Neef
Dr. Alexander Neef is Consultant and is focuses 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 studied chemistry and biochemistry (B.Sc.) at LMU Munich and physics (M.Sc.) at the University of Regensburg. He holds a PhD in physics from TU Berlin and published in Nature.
Vlada Maksimova
Vlada Maksimova is Consultant, 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 Consultant, 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.