European Wind and Solar Capacity Factors on a 50km Grid
by Tim Tröndle / ETH Zurich
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Description
Approximately 5,500 grid locations across Europe provide hourly capacity factor time series from 2000 to 2016 for onshore wind, offshore wind, and photovoltaic installations. The data, generated using the Renewables.ninja tool and MERRA-2 reanalysis, models specific turbine types and includes five distinct PV installation scenarios for onshore sites. This dataset serves as a foundational input for the euro-calliope European electricity system model.
Use Cases
Modeling renewable energy potential across Europe based on hourly capacity factors for wind and solar.
Assessing the impact of PV panel orientation and location (e.g., rooftop vs. field) on energy yield using the five provided time series.
Calibrating or validating regional energy system models like euro-calliope with spatio-temporal generation profiles.
Analyzing long-term variability and correlations of wind and solar resources from 2000 to 2016.
Strengths
High spatial resolution with ~2,700 onshore and ~2,800 offshore grid points covering Europe.
Long temporal coverage of 17 years (2000-2016) at an hourly resolution.
Models specific, representative turbine technologies (Vestas V90/2000 onshore, Siemens SWT-3.6-107 offshore) with defined hub heights.
Provides multiple PV installation scenarios, allowing for detailed rooftop and field-based solar potential analysis.
Limitations
Input sources conflict on the number of PV time series per onshore location (~5 vs. 17), creating uncertainty about the data's granularity.
Metadata is incomplete; specific column names, file sizes, and exact update dates are not provided.
The data is based on reanalysis (MERRA-2) and modeling (Renewables.ninja), not direct measurements, which may introduce biases.
Provenance
Source
Tim Tröndle (ETH Zurich), generated using Renewables.ninja.
Collection Method
Modeled from MERRA-2 reanalysis data with specified turbine and PV performance parameters.
Time Range
2000 to 2016
Geography
Europe, on a grid with 50km edge length.
Data is provided in linked NetCDF (temporal data) and GeoTIFF (spatial information) files. License is listed as Open Access (green).