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Open Data Sources

A curated list of open data sources for populating EPM inputs, organized by category.

Work in progress

This page is being expanded. If you have suggestions for additional sources or experience with specific datasets, please open an issue on GitHub.


Electricity Demand

Source Resolution Description Link
Our World in Data Yearly Historical electricity consumption by country ourworldindata.org
ENTSO-E Monthly / hourly Load data for European countries Transparency Platform
synde Hourly Modelled demand under SSP scenarios (GEGIS) GitHub

Existing Generation Capacity

Source Coverage Description Link
Global Energy Monitor Global Unit-level power plant data worldwide GEM
PowerPlantMatching Europe Matched plant database, CSV download GitHub
Global Power Plant Database Global Plant capacity, fuel, ownership (no longer maintained) GitHub

Solar and Wind Profiles

Source Resolution Description Link
Renewables.ninja Hourly Simulated PV and wind capacity factors renewables.ninja
Global Solar Atlas Solar resource maps and data globalsolaratlas.info
Global Wind Atlas Wind resource maps and data globalwindatlas.info
atlite Hourly Python library for weather-derived power profiles Docs
Sterl et al., 2022 PV and wind supply regions across Africa Paper

Hydropower

Source Resolution Description Link
EIA Yearly Historical hydro generation by country EIA
GRDC Monthly Global river discharge and runoff data grdc.bafg.de
IRENA / Sterl et al., 2022 Hydropower generation profiles across Africa Paper · Data
FAO AQUASTAT Geo-referenced database of dams FAO
Global Dam Watch (GRanD / FHReD) Reservoir and dam database (existing + future) globaldamwatch.org

Comprehensive / Multi-Category

Source Description Link
Ember Global power data for 85+ geographies (generation, emissions, demand) ember-energy.org
PyPSA-Earth Global electricity model with full data workflow Docs
ENERGYDATA.INFO World Bank open data platform for the energy sector energydata.info
OSeMOSYS (Brinkerink et al., 2021) Global energy system data Paper