Data Sources#
PyPSA-Eur is compiled from a variety of data sources. The following table provides an overview of the data sources used in PyPSA-Eur. Different licenses apply to the data sources.
Data Versioning#
Many of the data sources used in PyPSA-Eur are updated regularly.
To ensure reproducibility, PyPSA-Eur uses a versioning system for data sources which
allows users to select specific versions of the data sources to use in their models.
Next to the versioning and if the license allows, most datasets are also mirrored to a
public file storage for the repository under https://data.pypsa.org.
Note
For users, selection and control over which data sources to use is managed through the configuration file.
See data for details. In most cases you just wanna stick with the latest archive
version. Reproducibility is given even when using the latest tag via the
versions.csv, which is version controlled.
Understanding versions.csv#
The file data/versions.csv is the central registry for all data sources and their versions.
Each row defines a specific version of a dataset with the following columns:
dataset: The name of the dataset (e.g.,worldbank_urban_population).version: The version identifier, typically following the original data source’s versioning (e.g.,2025-08-14).source: The source type -primary(original data source),archive(mirrored copy ondata.pypsa.org), orbuild(generated from other data).tags: Space-separated tags likelatest,supportedordeprecated.added: The date when this entry was added to the registry.note: Optional notes about the dataset or version.url: The download URL for the data.
Entries to the versions.csv are never deleted and if a dataset was removed or is not available, the entry is marked as deprecated.
Note
For primary sources, each combination of dataset and version should point to a specific version of that dataset with a unique URL.
If the original data source does not provide versioned URLs (i.e., the URL always points to the latest data), the version is set to unknown.
In this case, the corresponding archive entries do not mirror the same version but represent snapshots taken at specific points in time from that primary source.
Adding a new version of a dataset#
If you notice that a data source has been updated and want to add the new version to PyPSA-Eur:
Add a new row to
data/versions.csvwith the samedatasetname, the newversion,sourceset toprimary, and theurlpointing to the original data source.Set appropriate tags (typically
latest supported).Update the tags of the previous version (remove
latest, keepsupportedif still compatible).Create a pull request with your changes.
Of course, any potential workflow adjustments should be considered and implemented as well.
Note
If the primary source has version set to unknown (i.e., the URL always points to the latest data) and a new version is available that has not been archived yet, please open an issue on the PyPSA-Eur GitHub repository to request an archive update.
Adding a new dataset#
To add a completely new data source to PyPSA-Eur:
Add a
primaryentry todata/versions.csvwith a new unique dataset name, version, and URL pointing to the original data source.Implement a
retrieverule for your dataset inrules/retrieve.smk. Take inspiration from existing rules in the file.Add the new data source to:
datasection in the pydantic schemascripts/lib/validation/config/data.pydata_inventory.csvdata inventory for PyPSA-Eur
Create a pull request with your changes.
Note
Maintainers of the repository will create the corresponding archive entry after reviewing your contribution.
Data inventory#
Short name |
Long name |
Description |
Owner |
Link to website |
License |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
enspreso_biomass |
ENSPRESO biomass potentials for Europe |
This collection contains datasets from ENSPRESO2, an EU-28 wide, open dataset on renewable energy potentials, at national (NUTS0), regional and high-resolution (1 x 1 km and 5 x 5 km) levels for the 2010-2050 period. Within ENSPRESO, ENergy Systems Potential Renewable Energy SOurces, and the ENSPRESO2 updates, technical potentials are provided for wind, solar and biomass, based on coherent GIS-based land-restriction scenarios. […] For biomass, agriculture, forestry and waste sectors are considered. The temporal resolution for wind and solar is both annual. |
European Commission Joint Research Centre |
https://data.jrc.ec.europa.eu/dataset/74ed5a04-7d74-4807-9eab-b94774309d9f |
CC-BY-4.0 |
osm |
Open Street Map electricity transmission grid |
Transmission grid topology and infrastructure on substations, lines and cables from Open Street Map (OSM). The dataset is built from OSM data and is not versioned. The latest dataset can be built using the scripts in the repository. |
Open Street Map contributors |
https://www.openstreetmap.org/ and https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12799201 |
ODbL-1.0 |
worldbank_urban_population |
Urban population (% of total population) |
Percentage of Urban population by country, United Nations Population Division. World Urbanization Prospects: 2018 Revision. |
World Bank |
CC-BY-4.0 |
|
worldbank_commodity_prices |
World Bank Commodity Prices |
Monthly commodity price data for a range of commodities including fossil fuels |
World Bank |
CC-BY-4.0 |
|
hotmaps_industrial_sites |
Hotmaps industrial sites |
In this repository are over 5000 georeferenced industrial sites of energy-intensive industry sectors published, together with GHG-emissions, production capacity, fuel demand and excess heat potentials calculated from emission and production data. |
hotmaps/industrial_sites/industrial_sites_Industrial_Database/ |
CC-BY-4.0 |
|
instrat_co2_prices |
CO2 Emission Allowance Prices |
CO2 emission allowance prices from the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS), retrieved from the Instrat energy price API. |
Instrat |
unknown |
|
co2stop |
CO2 Storage Potentials |
An assessment of the CO2 storage potential in Europe, including storage units, traps, and maps. |
European Commission Joint Research Centre |
Reuse policy following 2011/833/EU |
|
nitrogen_statistics |
Nitrogen Statistics and Information |
Statistics and information on the worldwide supply of, demand for, and flow of the mineral commodity nitrogen. |
United States Geological Survey (USGS) |
https://www.usgs.gov/centers/nmic/nitrogen-statistics-and-information |
Public Domain |
eu_nuts2013 |
Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) 2013 - shapefiles |
Shapefiles of EU’s Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) 2013, which is a hierarchical system for dividing up the economic territory of the European Union. |
eurostat |
Reuse policy following 2011/833/EU |
|
eu_nuts2021 |
Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) 2021 - shapefiles |
Shapefiles of EU’s Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) 2021, which is a hierarchical system for dividing up the economic territory of the European Union. |
eurostat |
Reuse policy following 2011/833/EU |
|
eurostat_balances |
Energy Balances |
European energy balances by country and fuel, as reported by Eurostat. |
eurostat |
CC-BY-4.0 |
|
eurostat_household_balances |
Eurostat Household Energy Balances |
Disaggregated final energy consumption in household - quantities (nrg_d_hhq) |
eurostat |
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/product/page/NRG_D_HHQ |
CC-BY-4.0 |
luisa_land_cover |
The LUISA base map 2018 |
The LUISA Base Map 2018 is a high-resolution land use/land cover map developed and produced by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission |
European Commission Joint Research Centre |
https://data.jrc.ec.europa.eu/dataset/51858b51-8f27-4006-bf82-53eba35a142c |
CC-BY-4.0 |
jrc_idees |
JRC-IDEES-2023 |
The JRC-IDEES-2023 release contains a consistent set of disaggregated energy-economy-emissions data for each Member State of the European Union, covering all sectors of the energy system for the 2000-2021 period: industry, buildings, transport, and power generation. |
European Commission Joint Research Centre |
https://data.jrc.ec.europa.eu/dataset/82322924-506a-4c9a-8532-2bdd30d69bf5 |
CC-BY-4.0 |
scigrid_gas |
Scientific Grid Model of European Gas Transmission Networks,Gas transmission data model |
DLR Institute for Networked Energy Systems |
https://web.archive.org/web/20241112092853/https://www.gas.scigrid.de/ |
CC-BY-4.0 |
|
synthetic_electricity_demand |
Interannual Electricity Demand Calculator,generates country-level electricity consumption time series based on weather data and correlates historical electricity demand to temperature |
CC-BY-4.0 |
|||
opsd_electricity_demand |
Open Power System Data - Electricity Demand |
Time series data of electricity consumption at country-level for various European countries. |
Open Power System Data |
unknown |
|
entsoe_electricity_demand |
ENTSO-E Transparency Platform - Electricity Demand |
Time series data of electricity consumption at country-level for various European countries. |
ENTSO-E |
unknown |
|
neso_electricity_demand |
NESO Electricity Demand Data |
Time series data of electricity consumption for Great Britain. |
National Energy System Operator (NESO) |
||
copernicus_land_cover |
Copernicus Global Land Service |
Land cover and land use inventory of European continent |
Copernicus |
https://land.copernicus.eu/en/products/global-dynamic-land-cover |
CC-BY-4.0 |
ship_raster |
Global Shipping Traffic Density |
To build ship density raster and use it further to compute availability matrix for renewables |
Worldbank |
https://datacatalog.worldbank.org/search/dataset/0037580/Global-Shipping-Traffic-Density |
CC-BY-4.0 |
eez |
Maritime Boundaries World EEZ |
To estimate potentials for offshore wind in country’s EEZ |
Marine Regions |
CC-BY-4.0 |
|
nuts3_population |
Population by NUTS3 region |
Average annual population to calculate regional GDP data (thousand persons) by NUTS 3 region (nama_10r_3popgdp) |
Eurostat |
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/bulk?lang=en&searchFilter=nama_10r_3pop |
CC-BY-4.0 |
gdp_per_capita |
Gridded global datasets for Gross Domestic Product over 1990–2015 |
Gross Domestic Product per capita (PPP) |
Kummu, M et al. |
CC-BY-4.0 |
|
population_count |
World - Population Counts |
Spatial distribution of population |
WorldPop |
https://data.humdata.org/dataset/worldpop-population-counts-for-world https://hub.worldpop.org/doi/10.5258/SOTON/WP00647 |
CC-BY-4.0 |
ghg_emissions |
Total GHG emissions and removals in the EU |
National emissions reported to the UNFCCC and to the EU under the Governance Regulation |
European Environment Agency |
CC-BY-4.0 |
|
gebco |
General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans |
Gridded Bathymetric data for ocean and land, providing elevation data in meters, on a 15 arc-second interval grid. |
GEBCO Comilation Group |
Public domain |
|
attributed_ports |
Global - International Ports |
International ports with attributes describing name, port functions, total capacity and location |
World bank Group |
https://datacatalog.worldbank.org/search/dataset/0038118/Global—International-Ports |
CC-BY-4.0 |
corine |
CORINE Land Cover 2012 |
Pan European Land cover for 44 thematic classes with 2012 as reference year |
Copernicus |
https://land.copernicus.eu/en/products/corine-land-cover/clc-2012 |
Custom similar to CC-BY |
emobility |
Motor and passenger vehicles count |
Bundesanstalt für Straßenwesen (BASt) |
CC-BY-4.0 |
||
h2_salt_caverns |
Technical potential of salt caverns for Hydrogen Storage in Europe |
Salt cavern potentials in GWh/sqkm |
Dilara et al |
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0360319919347299?via%3Dihub |
CC-BY-4.0 |
lau_regions |
Local Administrative Units |
Used for local administration regions when building geothermal potentials |
Eurostat |
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/gisco/geodata/administrative-units |
Permission to download only if used for non-commercial purposes |
aquifer_data |
International Hydrogeological Map of Europe |
Groundwater data |
BGR |
Right to use without restriction but no right to redistribute |
|
osm_boundaries |
OSM Boundaries |
OSM-Boundaries was created to enable users to easily extract boundaries such as country borders, state borders, and equivalents from the OpenStreetMap databases |
Ground Zero Communications AB |
ODbL |
|
gem_europe_gas_tracker |
Europe Gas Tracker |
Methane and hydrogen infrastructure in Europe, including pipelines, LNG terminals, gas power plants and extraction sites. |
Global Energy Monitor |
https://globalenergymonitor.org/projects/europe-gas-tracker/ |
CC-BY-4.0 |
gem_gspt |
Global Steel Plant Tracker |
Steel plant global locations and characteristics, including production capacity, ownership, and emissions data. |
Global Energy Monitor |
https://globalenergymonitor.org/projects/global-steel-plant-tracker/ |
CC-BY-4.0 |
gem_gcct |
Global Cement and Concrete Tracker |
Cement and concrete plant global locations and characteristics, including production capacity, ownership, and emissions data. |
Global Energy Monitor |
https://globalenergymonitor.org/projects/global-cement-and-concrete-tracker/ |
CC-BY-4.0 |
tyndp |
Ten Year Network Development Plan (TYNDP) electricity transmission grid |
Transmission grid topology based on the ENTSO-E/ENTSO-G TYNDP scenarios, including planned and existing lines. |
ENTSO-E/ENTSO-G |
CC-BY-4.0 |
|
powerplants |
Power plants matching dataset |
Global dataset of power plants with their location, capacity and technology type. |
The powerplantmatching contributors |
CC-BY-4.0 |
|
costs |
Technology cost assumptions |
Technology cost and performance assumptions for Europe for various technologies, including renewables, fossil fuels. |
The technologydata contributors |
CC-BY-4.0 |
|
country_runoff |
Country level runoff data |
Country-level runoff data, daily sums, for Europe, used for rescaling hydro-electricity availability in weather years not covered by EIA hydro-generation statistics. |
Fabian Neumann |
see rule retrieve_country_runoff in the PyPSA-Eur repository |
CC-BY-4.0 |
country_hdd |
Country level runoff data |
Country-level heating degree days for Europe, used for rescaling heat demand in weather years not covered by energy statistics. |
Fabian Neumann |
see rule retrieve_country_runoff in the PyPSA-Eur repository |
CC-BY-4.0 |
natura |
Natura 2000 protected areas |
Protected areas in Europe as defined by the Natura 2000 network. |
European Environment Agency |
https://www.eea.europa.eu/en/datahub/datahubitem-view/6fc8ad2d-195d-40f4-bdec-576e7d1268e4 |
CC-BY-4.0 |
bfs_road_vehicle_stock |
Swiss Road Vehicle Stock |
Stock of road motor vehicles in Switzerland. |
Swiss Federal Statistics Office |
https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/de/home/statistiken/kataloge-datenbanken.assetdetail.33827666.html |
custom (OPEN BY ASK) |
bfs_gdp_and_population |
Swiss Population |
Population data for Switzerland. |
Swiss Federal Statistics Office |
https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/en/home/news/whats-new.assetdetail.7786557.html |
custom (OPEN BY ASK) |
swiss_energy_balances |
Swiss Energy Balances |
Energy balances for Switzerland. |
Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE) |
||
mobility_profiles |
German Vehicle Activity Profiles |
Vehicle activity profiles for different vehicle types and road types in Germany, based on monitoring data from the Federal Highway Research Institute (BASt). These profiles provide insights into travel behavior and patterns, which can be used for transport modeling and analysis. |
Federal Highway Research Institute (BASt) |
https://www.bast.de/DE/Themen/Digitales/HF_1/Massnahmen/verkehrszaehlung/Stundenwerte.html?nn=414410 |
CC-BY-4.0 |
dh_areas |
Shapes of district heating areas |
ISI Fraunhofer-Institut für System- und Innovationsforschung |
CC-BY-4.0 |
||
geothermal_heat_utilisation_potentials |
Potentials for Geothermal heat utilisation |
ISI Fraunhofer-Institut für System- und Innovationsforschung |
CC-BY-4.0 |
||
jrc_ardeco |
Annual Regional Database of the European Commission’s Directorate General for Regional and Urban Policy |
The database contains a set of long time-series variables and indicators for EU regions, as well as for regions in some EFTA and candidate countries, at various statistical scales (NUTS1, NUTS2, NUTS3, metro regions). |
European Commission |
similar to CC-BY |
|
jrc_energy_atlas |
JRC Energy Atlas |
Contains 1km by 1km raster data of annual electricity demand per EU country |
European Commission Joint Research Centre |
https://energy-industry-geolab.jrc.ec.europa.eu/energy-atlas/ |
|
desnz_electricity_consumption |
Regional and local authority electricity consumption statistics |
Contains subnational electricity consumption statistics from 2005 to 2023. |
UK Government, Department for Energy Security and Net Zero |
Open Government Licence v3.0 |
|
ons_lad |
UK Local Authority Districts May 2024 Boundaries |
Contains shapefiles of local authorities in the United Kingdom. |
UK Office for National Statistics |
Open Government Licence v.3.0 |
|
bidding_zones_electricitymaps |
Electricity Maps Bidding Zones |
Geospatial data defining bidding zones for electricity markets in Europe |
Electricity Maps |
AGPL-3.0 |
|
bidding_zones_entsoepy |
ENTSOE-PY Bidding Zones |
Geospatial data defining bidding zones for electricity markets in Europe |
EnergieID |
MIT |