Harmonised global datasets of wind and solar farm locations and power

Energy systems need decarbonisation in order to limit global
warming to within safe limits. While
global land planners are promising more of the planet’s limited space to wind
and solar photovoltaic, there is little information on where current
infrastructure is located. The majority of recent studies use land suitability for
wind and solar, coupled with technical and socioeconomic constraints, as a
proxy for actual location data. Here, we address this shortcoming. Using
readily accessible OpenStreetMap data we present, to our knowledge, the first
global, open-access, harmonised spatial datasets of wind and solar
installations. We also include user friendly code for enabling users to easily
create newer versions of the dataset. Finally, we include first order estimates
of power capacities of installations. We anticipate this data will be of
widespread interest within global studies of the future potential and
trade-offs associated with the global decarbonisation of energy systems.