Prof. Dr. Bernd Hirschl researches the topics of energy transition and climate protection.

Prof. Dr. Bernd Hirschl has been Professor of Management of Regional Energy Systems and Head of the eponymous department at BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg since 2012. He is also head and founder of the "sustainable energy management and climate protection" department at the IÖW in Berlin, with which a strategic cooperation exists. Prof. Hirschl has been working at the IÖW since 1998.
Prof. Hirschl holds a degree in industrial engineering (University of Hamburg and Technical University of Hamburg-Harburg) and received the degree of Dr. phil. with distinction from the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the Free University of Berlin in 2007 with a thesis on "Renewable Energy Policy".

He leads a variety of inter- and transdisciplinary research and consulting projects, including several large BMBF collaborative projects, an academic junior research group in the Social-Ecological Research funding line, and several implementation-oriented real laboratories with many practice partners.

Thematic focus and expertise

• Energy and climate protection policy at municipal, regional and national level, including development and evaluation of energy and climate protection concepts, strategies and instruments
• Inter- and transdisciplinary research on various issues of the energy transition
• Sustainability assessment of innovations and markets in the energy and climate protection sector
• regional economic analysis and evaluation of the energy transition