Lion Hirth
Curriculum vitae (PDF) · LinkedIn · Google scholar
Prof. Dr. Lion Hirth is founder and director of Neon, a boutique energy economics consulting firm and assistant professor at Hertie School. He is an energy economist and expert in renewable energy, electricity market design, and energy policy. Lion has advised clients from the private and public sector, including Germany’s Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, the International Energy Agency, the European Commission, Agora Energiewende, and various European utilities. Previously, Lion spent five years with the Swedish utility Vattenfall. 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.
Positions
A leg in academia and another in advisory, Lion combines scientific rigor with deep sector knowledge.
- Founder and director of Neon (since 2014)
- Assistant professor at Hertie School (since 2017)
- Market analyst at Vattenfall (2009-14)
Education
Lion is trained in climate and energy economics and in quantitative methods.
- Ph.D. in Economics from TU of Berlin (Ottmar Edenhofer)
- Diploma in Economics from U Tübingen
- Magister Artium in Political Science from U Tübingen
Project highlights
Lion has worked electricity market design, helping policy-markers creating markets and advising private sector clients navigating them.
- System imbalances, trading company
- Future market design, utility
- Market-based redispatch, BMWi (report)
- Nodal vs. zonal pricing, BMWi (report)
Academic publications
Lion has published on the economics of wind and solar energy, system integration, and open modeling.
- Open Data for Electricity Modeling, Energy Strategy Reviews, 2020
- Locational investment signals, Energy Journal, 2020
- Heating with Wind, Energy Economics, 2020
- What caused the drop of electricity prices?, Energy Journal, 2018
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.
- Electricity Economics
- Renewable Energy Policies
- Emissions Pricing
- Economic Growth & Climate Change
- Electricity System Modeling
Executive training
With Neon, Lion educates energy professionals in open enrollment and in-house training seminars. Participants come from industry, policy, NGOs, finance, associations and academia.