Dr. Bjarne Steffen
Haldeneggsteig 4
Room IFW D 29.1
CH-8092 Zürich
Phone: +41 44 633 85 45
E-mail:
Bjarne Steffen was a senior researcher and lecturer with the Energy and Technology Policy Group since 2016, and a visiting scholar with the external pageMIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research since 2019. He received an ERC Starting Grant in 2020 and was appointed as Assistant Professor and Head of the Climate Finance and Policy Group at ETH Zurich in 2021. His research focuses on the role of public policy and of finance (investment, lending, underwriting) for technological change in the energy sector, using modelling and data-driven empirical methods.
While at EPG, Bjarne was part of the EU Horizon 2020 project external pageINNOPATHS (Innovation Pathways, Strategies and Policies for the Low-Carbon Transition in Europe) and of the external pageSwiss Competence Center for Energy Research. Before joining ETH Zurich, Bjarne worked as Principal in the external pageBoston Consulting Group’s energy and infrastructure practices and was project manager for the Strategic Infrastructure Initiative at the external pageWorld Economic Forum. He studied economics at external pageUniversity of Mannheim and the external pageUniversity of California at Berkeley, and holds a PhD in energy economics from external pageUniversity of Duisburg-Essen (chair Prof. Weber).
Selected publications
Peer-reviewed journal articles
Books & Book chapters
Photovoltaics and Storage Plants: Efficient Capacities in a System View
Böcker, B., Steffen, B., Weber, C.
In: B. Sorensen (editor), Solar Energy Storage, chapter 9, Elsevier, p. 209-223, 2015. external pagedoi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-409540-3.00009-8
Policy reports
Schmidt, T. S., Egli, F., Pahle, M., Polzin, F., Steffen, B. (2020). Finance for Decarbonisation: Financing the European low-carbon energy transition requires strong, consistent policies and low interest rates. Innopaths Policy Brief, Downloaddownload file (PDF, 706 KB)
Egli, F., Steffen, B., Schmidt, T.S. (2019). Learning in the financial sector is essential for reducing renewable energy costs. Policy Brief, Nature Energy, 4, 835–836. external pagehttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-019-0482-3
Steffen, B., Hischier, D., Schmidt, T.S. (2018): Current and future energy performance of power generation technologies in Switzerland, report published by the Swiss Academy for Engineering Sciences SATW, Zurich. Report website. external pageReport website.
United Nations Environment (2018). Emissions Gap Report 2018, Chapter 6. Bridging the gap: Fiscal reforms for the low-carbon transition, and Chapter 7. Bridging the gap: The role of innovation policy and market creation (contributing author) external pageReport website.
United Nations Environment (2018). Emissions Gap Report 2018, Chapter 7. Bridging the gap: The role of innovation policy and market creation (contributing authors from EPG: Anna Geddes (affiliated), Bjarne Steffen) external pageReport website