Biography
Franz Lehner leads the International Cooperation Division at Germany’s National Organisation Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology (NOW GmbH), which takes on assignments from the Federal Government in the area of sustainable mobility and energy supply.
Before joining NOW in 2021, Franz Lehner was Managing Consultant at the international energy transition consulting firm E4tech in Lausanne, Switzerland. For almost ten years, he helped E4tech’s clients to navigate at the interface between technology, policy and business in the field of hydrogen, fuel cells and power-to-X technologies. He delivered projects to global players from the automotive, chemical, metal, oil & gas and electronics industries as well as to public sector clients such as the European Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking, the Federal Ministry for Transport and Digital Infrastructure in Germany and the US Department of Energy. From 2014 to 2019 Franz Lehner co-authored E4tech’s annual Fuel Cell Industry Review, the global benchmark report in this sector.
Franz Lehner holds degrees in sustainable energy engineering from the University of Applied Sciences in Wels, Austria and a double degree from TalTech and the University of Tartu in Estonia. Before and during his studies he has also worked at the photovoltaics start-up Crystalsol in Vienna and Tallinn and at the Sonnenhaus-Institut in Straubing, which develops energy efficient building concepts.