Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions

New Energy: Conversations with Early-Career Energy Researchers - Bjarne Steffen & Valerie Karplus

Date and Time
Wednesday, June 17, 2020 - 4 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Location
Webinar

About

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Bjarne Steffen 
Senior Researcher and Lecturer, Energy Politics Group, ETH Zurich
"The Role of Finance in the Low-Carbon Energy Transition"

About the talk: Drawing on recent work on several geographies (including Europe, Australia, and developing countries), Dr. Steffen's presentation covers new insights on drivers for the choice of financing structures, on how the cost of capital depends on technology maturity and experience in the finance industry, as well on how policy instruments like state investment banks can be used effectively. He will also discuss ongoing research to include finance into energy system modeling, and implications for research on the low-carbon energy transition more generally.

A question-and-answer period, moderated by Valerie Karplus of MIT's Sloan School of Management, will follow the talk.

Bjarne Steffen is a senior researcher within the Energy Politics Group at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, and a lecturer at the Institute of Science, Technology and Policy, also at ETH Zurich. His research addresses policies for low- carbon innovation. He is particularly interested in the role of financial actors (e.g., investors and banks) in the ongoing sustainable energy transition, and the role of the state in the finance and energy sectors more generally. To this end, he works at the intersection of economics, political science, and innovation studies. Bjarne was a visiting scholar at MIT's Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research, and worked for the World Economic Forum and the Boston Consulting Group. He holds a Master's in economics from the University of Mannheim and a PhD in energy economics from the University of Duisburg-Essen.

Register here.

New Energy: Conversations with Early-Career Energy Researchers is a new online series featuring graduate, post-doctoral, and other early-career researchers sharing their discoveries and perspectives on energy-related topics. From policy to analysis to emerging research, this bi-weekly series will give anyone interested in energy the opportunity to learn from the rising stars in the field. 

This series is a collaborative effort between professors at Dartmouth College's Arthur L. Irving Institute for Energy and Society and the following colleges and universities: Arizona State University, Northeastern University, Carnegie Mellon University, Penn State University, Cornell University, Stanford University, Columbia University, Technical University of Denmark, Duke University, Tufts University's Center for Environmental and Resource Policy, ETH Zurich, University of Cambridge, Indiana University's Paul H. O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, and the University of Vermont's Gund Institute for Environment