Dr. Michael Stecher

Researcher

Dr. Michael Stecher has been working as a researcher and project manager in the Department of Energy Policy and Energy Markets at the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI since 2023. Previously, he worked as a research associate at the Chair of Environmental and Resource Economics at the University of Freiburg, where he completed his doctorate on »Causal attribution in ecosystems with tipping points«.

Michael Stecher works in scientific research and political consultancy projects at a national and international level. The focus of his work is on the evaluation and further development of the market design of different energy markets in the course of the transformation to a climate-neutral energy and economic system. He focuses on the design of auctions and support instruments for renewable electricity and hydrogen using a wide range of qualitative assessment methods and quantitative statistical methods.

He studied International Business Administration (B.A.) at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and the University of Victoria, Canada, as well as Economics (M.Sc. and B.Econ.) at the University of Tübingen and the University of Adelaide, Australia. 

    • BMWK – Further development of financing instruments for renewable energies under the German renewable energy support scheme (EEG)
    • BMWK – Platform climate-neutral energy system (high-level stakeholder process for future electricity market design)
    • DG ENER – Assistance in the development of auction design and necessary pre-conditions for a European import auction for renewable hydrogen under the European Hydrogen Bank
    • DG CLIMA – Assistance in the analysis and set-up of a competitive bidding mechanism under the Innovation Fund
    • Kopernikus-Project Ariadne
    • Stecher, M.; Billerbeck, A.; Burkhardt, A. (2025): Assessing Potential Distortions Under Production-Based CfDs on the German Electricity Market. In: 21st International Conference on the European Energy Market (EEM), Lisbon, Portugal, 2025, pp. 1-7. DOI: 10.1109/EEM64765.2025.11050234
    • Burkhardt, A.; Billerbeck, A.; Böttger, D.; Brand, H.; Egerer, J.; Gerhardt, N.; Gillich, A.; Held, A.; Kahles, M.; Kamm, J.; Hoff, F.; Kochems, J.; Nienhaus, K.; Pfefferer, U.; Radke, S.; Schill, W.-P.; Stecher, M.; Stiewe, C.; Tekin, E.; Tiedemann, S. (2024): Kernelemente des Strommarktdesigns – Anforderungen, Ziele, Bewertungskriterien und Handlungsoptionen. Kopernikus-Projekt Ariadne, Potsdam. https://doi.org/10.48485/pik.2024.016
    • Stecher, M.; Anatolitis, V.; Panny, J. (2024): Beyond Price – Assessing the impact of non-price criteria in solar photovoltaic auctions, 20th International Conference on the European Energy Market (EEM), Istanbul, Turkiye, 2024, pp. 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1109/EEM60825.2024.10608493.
    • Stecher, M. and Baumgärtner, S. (2024): Quantifying agents' causal responsibility in dynamical systems, Ecological Economics, 217, 108086, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2023.108086.
    • Stecher, M. and Baumgärtner, S. (2022): A stylized model of stochastic ecosystems with alternative stable states, Natural Resource Modeling, 35(4), e12345, https://doi.org/10.1111/nrm.12345.