Dr. Lion Hirth

Short bio

Prof. Dr. Lion Hirth is research fellow at MCC. He is also assistant professor at Hertie School of Governance, a Berlin-based public policy school and founder and director of Neon, a boutique energy economics consulting firm. He is an energy economist and expert in wind and solar energy, power market modeling, and electricity market design. Lion has consulted clients from the private and public sector on matters of renewable energy and power markets, including the International Energy Agency (Paris), the European Commission (Brussels), the Department for Energy and Climate Change (London), Agora Energiewende (Berlin), and Svensk Energi (Stockholm). He also regularly advises the German government on wholesale and balancing market design.

Lion acts as secretary of Strommarkttreffen, a 3000 member network of energy professionals in science, policy and industry. He has developed and maintains the open-source power market model EMMA and coordinates the open energy data platform OPSD. Previously, Lion spent five years with the Swedish utility Vattenfall, where he was concerned with long-term price projections. Lion holds a Ph.D. in energy economics, a Diploma in economics, and a Magister in political science. His academic articles, published inter alia in Energy Economics, The Energy Journal, and Applied Energy, have won several awards and are heavily cited. Lion has a daughter and lives in Berlin. 

Curriculum Vitae

View CV (pdf)

Publications

Click on the title for link to the journal. Click on “pdf” for a free-access pre-publication version or email me. Download all papers.

First-authored articles in peer-reviewed journals

• The ENTSO-E Transparency Platform. An assessment of Europe’s most ambitious electricity data platform, Applied Energy, 2018 (w/ Jonathan Mühlenpfordt & Marisa Bulkeley). open access
• What caused the drop of European electricity prices? A factor decomposition analysis, The Energy Journal, 2018. open access
• The role of capital costs for decarbonizing the power sector, Environmental Research Letters, 2016 (w/ Jan Steckel). pdf
• The benefits of flexibility: The value of wind energy with hydropower, Applied Energy, 2016. pdf
• System-friendly Wind Power, Energy Economics, 2016 (w/ Simon Müller). pdf | Best paper award INREC
• Why Wind is not Coal: On the Economics of Electricity, The Energy Journal, 2016 (with Falko Ueckerdt & Ottmar Edenhofer). pdf
• Balancing Power and Variable Renewables: Three Links, Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2015 (with Inka Ziegenhagen). pdf
• Integration Costs Revisited – An economic framework of wind and solar variability, Renewable Energy, 2015 (with Falko Ueckerdt & Ottmar Edenhofer). pdf | Best paper award IAEE | Best poster award IEWT | Best paper award IEWT
• The Optimal Share of Variable Renewables: How the Variability of Wind and Solar Power affects their Welfare-optimal Deployment, The Energy Journal, 2015.  pdf | review
• The Market Value of Solar Power: Is Photovoltaics Cost-Competitive?, IET Renewable Power Generation, 2015. pdf | Selected paper Solar Integration Workshop
• The Market Value of Variable Renewables: The effect of solar wind power variability on their relative price, Energy Economics, 2013. pdf
• Redistribution Effects of Energy and Climate Policy: The electricity market, Energy Policy, 2013 (with Falko Ueckerdt). pdf

Co-authored articles in peer-reviewed journals

• Opening the black box of energy modelling: strategies and lessons learned, Energy Strategy Reviews, 2018 (w/ Stefan Pfenninger, Ingmar Schlecht, Eva Schmid, Frauke Wiese, Tom Brown, Chris Davis, Matthew Gidden, Heidi Heinrichs & Clara Heuberger). open access
• The importance of open data and software: is energy research lagging behind?, Energy Policy, 2017 (w/ Stefan Pfenninger, Joseph DeCarolis, Sylvain Quoilin & Iain Staffell). open access
• Carpe diem: A novel approach to select representative days for long-term power system models with high shares of renewable energy sources, Energy, 2016 (w/ Paul Nahmmacher, Eva Schmid & Brigitte Knopf).
• System LCOE: What are the costs of variable renewables?, Energy, 2013 (with Falko Ueckerdt, Gunnar Luderer & Ottmar Edenhofer). pdf
• On the Economics of Renewable Energy Sources, Energy Economics, 2013 (with Ottmar Edenhofer, Brigitte Knopf, Michael Pahle, Steffen Schloemer, Eva Schmid & Falko Ueckerdt). pdf
• Carbon lock-out: Advancing renewable energy policy in Europe, Energies, 2012 (with Paul Lehmann, Felix Creutzig, Melf-Hinrich Ehlers, Nele Friedrichsen, Clemens Heuson & Robert Pietzcker).

 
Under review

• The Market Value of Wind and Solar Power: an Analytical Approach, USAEE Working Paper, 2016 (w/ Alexander Radebach).
• Minimal Thermal Generation in Power Systems, USAEE Working Paper, 2015. 
• How much electricity do we consume? A guide to German and European electricity consumption and generation data, FEEM Working Paper, 2014 (w/ Maximilian Schumacher).

 
Dissertation

• The Economics of Wind and Solar Variability, TU Berlin, 2014.

 
Other publications

• The importance of open data and software for energy research and policy advise, SETIS Magazine, 2016 (w/ Stefan Pfenninger, Joseph DeCarolis, Sylvain Quoilin & Iain Staffell).
• Übertragungsnetzbetreiber erwarten massiven Wertverlust für Solarstrom, Phasenprüfer, 7 January 2016 (with Jakob Schlandt)
• Jenseits des Sündenbocks Erneuerbare: Was hat den Verfall des Börsenstrompreises wirklich verursacht?, Phasenprüfer, 13 August 2015.
• Das Ende der Grundlast, Phasenprüfer, 26 May 2015.
• Solarstrom - an der Börse immer weniger wert, pv magazine, 23 April 2015.
• Die Ökonomie der Energiewende, Phasenprüfer, 9 March 2015.
• Wind, Sonne und Regelleistung, energiewirtschaftliche tagesfragen, 2013 (with Inka Ziegenhagen). pdf | Mandarin
• The Decreasing Market Value of Variable Renewables: Integration Options and Deadlocks, in: Detlef Stolten & Viktor Scherer (eds.): Transition to Renewable Energy Systems: Energy Process Engineering, Wiley, 2013 (with Falko Ueckerdt). pdf

Press coverage

• Wind and Solar Power Advance, but Carbon Refuses to Retreat, New York Times, 2017.
• Vattenkraft förbättrar vindkraftens lönsamhet, Second Opinion, 2016 (Swedish).
• 3 Ways Wind and Solar Can Continue To Grow In a 21st-Century Grid, Rocky Mountain Institute Outlet, 2015.
• Renewable energy sector runs the risk of overpowering market, Financial Times, 2015. pdf
• No business case for lots of wind and solar, Energy Transition, 2015.
• Strom aus Erneuerbaren kannibalisiert sich selbst, Handelsblatt, 2015 (German).
• A Look at Wind and Solar, Part 2: Is There An Upper Limit To Variable Renewables?, TheEnergyCollective, 2015.
• The Optimal Share of Intermittent Renewables, TheEnergyCollective, 2014.
• Doe windenergie niet af als kostenpost van miljarden euro’s, NRC, 2014 (Dutch).

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