ERA5 derived time series of European aggregated surface weather variables, wind power, and solar power capacity factors: hourly data from 1950-2020

The ERA5 reanalysis (1950-2020) has been used to calculate hourly time series of surface meteorological variables useful for energy meteorology studies, as well as degree-days, wind power, and solar power capacity factors. These are calculated at European national level, as well as for a sub-set of smaller regions over the UK and surrounding seas. The locations of wind and solar farms operational in April 2021 are used to weight wind and solar capacity factors respectively. 2020 population data is used to weight surface meteorological variables. The datasets have been produced to increase the use of meteorological data within power system modelling. When citing this dataset please refer to the publication: Hourly time series of calibrated historical and near-future energy-meteorology variables for energy system modelling (see related CentAUR publications).