Hourly Low-Cost Electricity Estimates for the United States in 2050

Giving access to hourly estimates of low-cost, dispatch-constrained electricity (LDE) resource availability for the year 2050, aggregated at national and ReEDS balancing area levels. It was produced by the Department of Energy in 2018-2019 to support analysis of hydrogen production and carbon capture opportunities.

Use Cases

• Model supply curves for low-cost electricity using hourly LDE quantity estimates for 2050.
• Analyze the spatial distribution of LDE availability by mapping data aggregated to ReEDS balancing areas.
• Assess the potential for electrolytic hydrogen production by correlating LDE quantity with hourly availability patterns.
• Evaluate curtailment scenarios under high variable renewable energy penetration using the projected hourly LDE resource.

Strengths

• Provides hourly temporal resolution for electricity estimates across an entire year (2050).
• Includes geographic aggregation at both national and ReEDS balancing area levels.
• Created by the U.S. Department of Energy to support a specific technical and economic analysis.

Limitations

• Projections are for a single future year (2050) and may not reflect interim conditions.
• Analysis methodology and underlying model (ReEDS) from 2018-2019 may be outdated.
• Data structure and specific column details are not provided in the input.

Provenance

Source

U.S. Department of Energy

Collection Method

Modeling using the ReEDS (Regional Energy Deployment System) model to project power sector evolution.

Time Range

Projected data for the year 2050.

Freshness

Dataset metadata was last updated in March 2026, though the underlying analysis is from 2018-2019.

Geography

United States, aggregated nationally and by ReEDS balancing areas.