Freely available datasets of energy variables

Climate reanalysis datasets

This page contains a list of all the freely available datasets of energy variables (electricity demand, wind/solar/hydro-power) reconstructions based on climate reanalyses or climate change projections.

The list is a work-in-progress, please reply to this post if you want to add a dataset or suggest a correction.

The acronym CF stands for “Capacity factor”, the ratio between the energy output and the total installed capacity.

Historical period

Electricity demand

Name Unit Period Domain Spat. res. Time res. Meteo input(s) data license updates URL
C3S Operational Energy, Power 1979-present Europe Country daily ERA5 ECMWF Copernicus License 1.0 yes Copernicus Climate Data Store | Copernicus Climate Data Store
ECEM Energy, Power 1979-2016 Europe Country daily ERA-INTERIM ECMWF Copernicus License 1.0 no http://ecem.wemcouncil.org/
JRC 2020 Power 1990-2015 Europe Country hourly ERA5 CC BY 4.0 no Joint Research Centre Data Catalogue - Power system flexibility in a variable climate - European Commission
UREAD Energy Reanalysis Power 1980-2018 Europe Country Hourly MERRA2 CC Attributions 4.0 no http://dx.doi.org/10.17864/1947.239

Solar power

Name Unit Period Domain Spat. res. Time res. Meteo input(s) data license updates URL
C3S Operational CF, Energy, Power 1979-present Europe 25km, NUTS0, NUTS2 hourly ERA5 ECMWF Copernicus License 1.0 yes Copernicus Climate Data Store | Copernicus Climate Data Store
ECEM CF, Energy, Power 1979-2016 Europe Country and eh2050 clusters daily ERA-INTERIM ECMWF Copernicus License 1.0 no http://ecem.wemcouncil.org/
EMHIRES-Solar CF 1986-2015 Europe NUTS2 Hourly CM-SAF SARAH European Commission Reuse no EMHIRES dataset: wind and solar power generation | Zenodo
ENTSO-E PECD CF 1982-2016 Europe ENTSO-E Area hourly ENTSO-E Mid-term Adequacy Forecast 2020 (MAF 2020)
ERA5 derived time series of European country-aggregate electricity demand, wind power generation and solar power generation CF 1979-2018 Europe Country 3-hourly ERA5 CC Attributions 4.0 no http://dx.doi.org/10.17864/1947.227
UREAD Energy Reanalysis CF 1980-2018 Europe Country Hourly MERRA2 CC Attributions 4.0 no http://dx.doi.org/10.17864/1947.239
UREAD Energy Reanalysis ERA5 CF 1950-2020 Europe Country Hourly ERA5 CC Attributions 4.0 no ERA5 derived time series of European aggregated surface weather variables, wind power, and solar power capacity factors: hourly data from 1950-2020 - University of Reading Research Data Archive
Renewables.ninja CF 1980-2019 Europe NUTS2 Hourly SARAH, MERRA2 CC-BY-4.0 yes https://www.renewables.ninja/

Wind power

Name Unit Period Domain Spat. res. Time res. Meteo input(s) data license updates URL
C3S Operational CF, Energy, Power 1979-present Europe 25km, NUTS0, NUTS2 (MAR0 & MAR1 for offshore) hourly ERA5 ECMWF Copernicus License 1.0 yes Copernicus Climate Data Store | Copernicus Climate Data Store
ECEM CF, Energy, Power 1979-2016 Europe Country and eh2050 clusters daily ERA-INTERIM ECMWF Copernicus License 1.0 no http://ecem.wemcouncil.org/
EMHIRES-Wind CF 1986-2015 Europe NUTS2 Hourly MERRA2 European Commission Reuse no EMHIRES dataset: wind and solar power generation | Zenodo
ENTSO-E PECD CF 1982-2016 Europe ENTSO-E Area hourly ENTSO-E Mid-term Adequacy Forecast 2020 (MAF 2020)
ERA5 derived time series of European country-aggregate electricity demand, wind power generation and solar power generation CF 1979-2018 Europe Country 3-hourly ERA5 CC Attributions 4.0 no http://dx.doi.org/10.17864/1947.227
UREAD Energy Reanalysis CF 1980-2018 Europe Country Hourly MERRA2 CC Attributions 4.0 no http://dx.doi.org/10.17864/1947.239
UREAD Energy Reanalysis ERA5 CF 1950-2020 Europe Country Hourly ERA5 CC Attributions 4.0 no ERA5 derived time series of European aggregated surface weather variables, wind power, and solar power capacity factors: hourly data from 1950-2020 - University of Reading Research Data Archive
Renewables.ninja CF 1980-2019 Europe NUTS2 Hourly MERRA2 CC-BY-4.0 yes https://www.renewables.ninja/
WIND Toolkit Power 2007-2013 US 2x2 km Hourly ERA-INTERIM no Wind Integration National Dataset Toolkit | Grid Modernization | NREL

Hydropower

Name Unit Period Domain Spat. res. Time res. Meteo input(s) data license updates URL
C3S Operational CF, Energy, Power 1979-present Europe Country daily ERA5 ECMWF Copernicus License 1.0 yes Copernicus Climate Data Store | Copernicus Climate Data Store
ECEM CF, Energy, Power 1979-2016 Europe Country and eh2050 clusters daily ERA-INTERIM ECMWF Copernicus License 1.0 no http://ecem.wemcouncil.org/
ENTSO-E PECD Inflow, reservoirs 1982-2017 Europe ENTSO-E Area weekly Winter Outlook Report 2021/22 and Summer Review 2021
JRC 2020 Inflow, reservoirs 1990-2015 Europe Country Hourly LISFLOOD CC Attributions 4.0 no https://data.jrc.ec.europa.eu/dataset/221c6cf4-98c0-4793-8e3a-78820377387f/resource/fdb93cbc-703e-46b6-8cf7-02fba9a0ac38
JRC-EFAS-Hydropower Inflow, ror generation 1991-2019 Europe Country Weekly/daily C3S EFAS CC Attributions 4.0 no JRC-EFAS-Hydropower | Zenodo

Climate change projections

Demand

Name Unit Period Domain Spat. res. Time res. Meteo input(s) data license updates URL
C3S Operational Energy, Power 1970-2100 Europe Country 3-hourly 10 RCMs, RCPS 4.5, 2.8.5, 2.6 (no all scenarios for all models) ECMWF Copernicus License 1.0 no Copernicus Climate Data Store | Copernicus Climate Data Store
ECEM Energy, Power 1979-2100 Europe Country daily 10 RCMs. 3 scenarios ECMWF Copernicus License 1.0 no http://ecem.wemcouncil.org/

Solar power

Unit Period Domain Spat. res. Time res. Meteo input(s) data license updates URL
C3S Operational CF, Energy, Power 1970-2100 Europe 25km, Country, NUTS2 3-hourly 10 RCMs, RCPS 4.5, 2.8.5, 2.6 (no all scenarios for all models) ECMWF Copernicus License 1.0 no Copernicus Climate Data Store | Copernicus Climate Data Store
ECEM CF, Energy, Power 1979-2100 Europe Country and eh2050 clusters daily 10 RCMs, 3 scenarios ECMWF Copernicus License 1.0 no http://ecem.wemcouncil.org/
Supplementary Data: 21st Century climate change impacts on key properties of a large-scale renewable-based electricity system CF 1970-2100 Europe Country 3-hourly 5 GCMs, 3 RCP scenarios CC-BY-4.0 no Supplementary Data: 21st Century climate change impacts on key properties of a large-scale renewable-based electricity system - Mendeley Data

Wind power

Name Unit Period Start year End year Domain Spat. res. Time res. Meteo input(s) data license updates URL
C3S Operational CF, Energy, Power 1970-2100 1970 2100 Europe 25km, Country, NUTS2 (MAR0 & MAR1 for offshore) 3-hourly 10 RCMs, RCPS 4.5, 2.8.5, 2.6 (no all scenarios for all models) ECMWF Copernicus License 1.0 no Copernicus Climate Data Store | Copernicus Climate Data Store
ECEM CF, Energy, Power 1979-2100 1979 2100 Europe Country and eh2050 clusters daily 10 RCMs, 3 scenarios ECMWF Copernicus License 1.0 no http://ecem.wemcouncil.org/
Supplementary Data: 21st Century climate change impacts on key properties of a large-scale renewable-based electricity system CF 1970-2100 1970 2100 Europe Country 3-hourly 5 GCMs, 3 RCP scenarios CC-BY-4.0 no Supplementary Data: 21st Century climate change impacts on key properties of a large-scale renewable-based electricity system - Mendeley Data

Hydropower

Name Unit Period Start year End year Domain Spat. res. Time res. Meteo input(s) data license updates URL
C3S Operational CF, Energy, Power 1970-2100 1970 2100 Europe Country 3-hourly 10 RCMs, RCPS 4.5, 2.8.5, 2.6 (no all scenarios for all models) ECMWF Copernicus License 1.0 no Copernicus Climate Data Store | Copernicus Climate Data Store
ECEM CF, Energy, Power 1979-2100 1979 2100 Europe Country daily 10 RCMs, 3 scenarios ECMWF Copernicus License 1.0 no http://ecem.wemcouncil.org/
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