For offshore wind, assumptions were applied to restrict turbine siting within each node’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Turbines were only considered feasible if located at least 5 km offshore and in waters shallower than 300 m. EEZ boundaries were obtained from the Marine Regions World EEZ v12 dataset, and bathymetry data from GEBCO.
Installable capacity assumptions were based on Scholz et al. (2012): onshore wind – 10.42 MW/km², offshore wind – 10.42 MW/km², and solar PV – 141.9 MW/km².
Hydropower potentials were sourced from Hoes et al. (2017), an online database of potential hydropower locations. These were aggregated at the node level, excluding any sites located within protected areas.
Data sourcing standards for RE potentials are detailed below.
Methodology
Renewable energy potentials
What are RE potentials and how do they impact modelling results?
Renewable potentials for solar photovoltaic (PV), onshore wind, and offshore wind were calculated across 201 model nodes using an area-based approach. For each node, the total available area for installing each technology was estimated, and this area was multiplied by an assumed installable capacity per unit area to determine the technical potential.
For solar PV and onshore wind, the area analysis excluded unsuitable land types such as protected areas defined by the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA). Usable land was then estimated based on assumed percentages of each land type within the node. For example, 3% of cropland was assumed usable for onshore wind, based on a European area analysis by Scholz (2012). These assumptions may not be universally applicable due to differing socio-political contexts across regions.
Protected area data was sourced from the WDPA, and land cover data was drawn from the Copernicus Global Land Service (CGLS), which provides a global 100 m resolution land cover map with 23 discrete classes. The table below maps CGLS land class codes to specific land types used in the analysis.