Biography
Benedict Probst is a Senior Researcher at ETH Zurich and a Fellow at the Centre for Environment, Energy and Natural Resource Governance (C-EENRG) at the University of Cambridge. He passed his PhD on the economics of the clean energy transition at the University of Cambridge in October 2019.
His background is in energy economics and development finance, with degrees from Cambridge (MPhil), the London School of Economics (MSc) and the Rotterdam School of Management & Erasmus School of Economics (BSc). He also has extensive coding experience, primarily in R, QGIS and SQL.
Benedict spent several years living and working in low- and middle-income countries, including Paraguay, Brazil and South Africa and speaks fluent German, English, Spanish, and Portuguese.
His op-eds have appeared in a number of newspapers, including the Conversation UK & France, the Swiss Handelszeitung and the German Süddeutsche Zeitung.
Benedict has won multiple awards, including the Best Overall Performance Award at LSE and the Best PhD Research Prize from the Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge.
More information can be found here:
https://sustec.ethz.ch/people/sr/BProbst.html
Publications
Peer-reviewed
2021
Probst, B., Westermann, L., Kontoleon, A., Anadon., L. D. (2021). Leveraging private investment to expand renewable power generation: Evidence on financial additionality and productivity gains from Uganda. World Development
2020
Probst, B., Anatolitis, V., Kontoleon, A., Anadon., L. D. (2020). The short-term costs of local content requirements: Evidence from the Indian solar auctions. Nature Energy
Probst, B, BenYishay, A., Kontoleon, A., dos Reis, T. (2020) Impacts of a large-scale titling initiative on deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, Nature Sustainability
Probst, B., Holcroft, R., Huenteler, J., Balabanya, A., Tipping, A., Robinson, P. (2020) Attracting Private Solutions and Participation in the Power Sector in Sub-Saharan Africa: Findings from a Survey of Investors and Financiers. World Bank Policy Research Paper No. 9299. World Bank, Washington, DC.
Working Papers
Invention of Climate Change-Mitigation Technologies: A Global Analysis (2020) (with Dechezleprêtre, A., Touboul, S., Glachant, M.)
Probst, B., Kontoleon, A., Anadon., L. D. (2020). Linking public R&D funding, scientific publications and technological applications to study the clean energy transition – a scientometric and patent-based approach
Probst, B., Kontoleon, A., Anadon., L. D. (2020). Open access increases the likelihood of patenting advances for the energy transition
Probst, B., Kontoleon, A., Anadon., L. D. (2020). What are the main determinants of diffusion speed between academic research and industrial application? Evidence from four clean-energy technologies
Probst, B., Tobis, N., (2020) Combining satellite imagery and machine learning to detect power outages in developing and emerging countries
Policy reports (selection):
Probst, B. (2020) Mobilizing private capital for grid-connected renewable power in developing countries – Lessons learnt, KfW Development Bank Financial Cooperation Evaluation
Technical Reports (selection)
Hydrogen in the Northwest European energy system (2020) (with Alexander Esser, Hanns Koenig, Carlotta Piantieri, Marise Westbroek, Gniewomir Fils, Kane Hunter)
Regional incentives for dispatchable generation capacity (2020) (with Hanns Koenig)
Corporate Green PPAs: Economic analysis (2020) (with Hanns Koenig, Peter Baum, Andrew Moore)
The future of coal in Morocco’s power system (2020) (with Maren Preuss, Hanns Koenig, Peter Baum, Linus Beer) (not public)
Recommendations for a sustainable economic and structural recovery programme (2020) (with Peter Baum, Antonia Kilavuz, Hanns Koenig, Andreas Löschel and Johanna Schiele)
Are “kalte Dunkelflauten” killing the electrification of the heating sector? (2018) (with Benjamin Merle, Casimir Lorenz and Andreas Löschel)
