Solar PV and wind power Model Supply Region (MSR) dataset as energy model input for countries in Central and South America

This dataset provides model-ready data to include geospatial differentiation in solar and wind power investment options in energy models (primarily capacity expansion models and dispatch models) at the level of every Central and South American country. 

The methodology used to create the dataset takes into account resource quality, land use restrictions, distance from infrastructure, and other factors. It was previously applied to create an all-Africa dataset explained in Sterl et al. (2022) and published by Sterl, Hussain & Elabbas (2023). 

Folder (1) provides shapefiles of each country's overall feasible area for developing solar and wind power projects, under the restrictions/criteria mentioned above and described in Sterl et al. (2022).

Folder (2) provides the best 5% ("best" measured by expected LCOE, from lowest to highest, including grid and road extension costs; 5% measured in terms of coverage of a country's area) of each country's solar and wind development potential, including hourly time series for model input.

Folder (3) provides the corresponding shapefiles.

Folder (4) provides simplified/aggregated results in terms of MSR clusters (see Sterl et al. 2022 for details), alongside hourly time series based on the meteorological year 2018. The amount of clusters was chosen to be 3, 5 or 10 depending on country size.

Folder (5) provides PDF-file maps at the country level, showing resource strength and clustering outcomes by MSR (post-screening).

Explanations of the headers in any spreadsheet files are provided in the Supplementary Information of Sterl et al. (2022).

Countries/territories included in the dataset: 

ArgentinaBelizeBoliviaBrazilChileColombiaCosta RicaCubaDominican RepublicEcuadorEl SalvadorFrench GuianaGuatemalaGuyanaHaitiHondurasJamaicaNicaraguaPanamaParaguayPeruSurinameUruguayVenezuela

References

Sterl, S., Hussain, B., Miketa, A. et al. An all-Africa dataset of energy model “supply regions” for solar photovoltaic and wind power. Sci Data 9, 664 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01786-5

Sterl, S., Hussain, B., & Elabbas, M. (2023). Data for the paper « An all-Africa dataset of energy model "supply regions" for solar PV and wind power » (1.2.0) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14870967