We warmly welcome Dr Oliver Ruhnau to the Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences of the University of Cologne as the new Junior Professor for Energy Market Design. At the same time, he will join the Research Scientist team around Prof. Dr Marc Oliver Bettzüge at the Institute of Energy Economics (EWI). Ruhnau is an expert in energy economics and the sustainable transformation of energy systems. He has (co-)developed several numerical energy market models and used them to investigate, among other things, the contribution of flexible electricity demand to the economic viability of wind and solar power.
Until now, Ruhnau was a postdoctoral researcher at the Hertie School in Berlin, where he also received his PhD. Previously, he was a Data Scientist in the energy industry. He studied industrial engineering at RWTH Aachen University and at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.
„Energy market design is the bridge to a climate-neutral energy system: it can stimulate investments in sustainable technologies, coordinate actors in a sector-coupled energy system, leverage efficiencies and create social balance,“ says Dr Oliver Ruhnau. „I look forward to researching this topic in my new role and together with the team at EWI, contributing to the success of the energy transition.“
With Dr Oliver Ruhnau, THe Faculty and the EWI gain an outstanding energy economist who is already very visible at a young age. EWI Director and General Manager Professor Dr Marc Oliver Bettzüge is correspondingly pleased: „I am very pleased that he will strengthen the EWI in the field of energy market design and significantly enrich our research on how to best design the energy transformation.“, says the holder of the Chair of Energy and Sustainability of the WiSo Faculty.
