NREL National Solar Radiation Database
nrel
Satellite-derived half-hourly solar irradiance and meteorological data on a 4 km grid, covering the Americas and expanding regions.
- ProvenanceUntraced
- DocumentationPartially documented
- Currency & maintenanceAging
How many layers of assumptions sit under this is not recorded. That is not the same as none.
The NSRDB provides GHI, DNI and DHI derived from geostationary satellite imagery through the PSM physical model, with supporting meteorology. It is the reference solar resource dataset for US work. The record is a good example of why access paths are modelled separately: the OEDI Parquet copy on S3 is anonymous and bulk-downloadable, while the developer API is key-gated and rate-limited, and the barrier classification differs between them even though the data is the same.
- Identifier
https://data.openei.org/submissions/57- Domains
- Renewable resource & weather
- Keywords
- DNI, GHI, NSRDB, irradiance, satellite, solar
Fitness for purpose
- Supports
- Capacity Expansion Modeling, Production Cost Modeling, Resource Adequacy, Siting and Land Use
- Not suitable for
- Not captured
The exclusions are the half you cannot get anywhere else. A dataset that is wrong for your question is worth knowing about before you build on it.
Structure
- Network topology
- Not captured
- Impedances
- Not captured
- Voltage classes
- Not captured
- Provenance class
- modeled
- Upstream sources
- Not capturedWhich is a statement about what the catalog can show, not about how the data was produced.
- Licence
- CC-BY-3.0
- Redistribution
- Not captured
Access terms, per path
HDF5 on anonymous S3, via the OEDI data lake
none
CSV per point, on request
accountRequired · NREL developer API key, free on registration; rate-limited per key
Geographic
- Bounding box
- -20.00° – 60.00° N, -180.00° – -25.00° E
- Granularity
- gridded
- Native CRS
- EPSG:4326
- Geometry types
- Not captured
- Features
- Not captured
- As WKT
POLYGON((-180 -20, -25 -20, -25 60, -180 60, -180 -20))
Temporal
- From
- Jan 1, 1998
- To
- Dec 31, 2024
- Update cadence
- yearly
- Time resolution
- PT30M
| Field | Definition | Type | Unit | Concept | Value basis | Provenance | Report an issue with this field |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
DNIDirect normal irradiance | Beam radiation on a surface normal to the sun. | int16 | Not captured | Not captured | modeled | Read from: goes-psm | |
GHIGlobal horizontal irradiance | Total shortwave radiation on a horizontal surface, as an instantaneous value at the half-hour timestamp. | int16 | Not captured | Not captured | modeled | Read from: goes-psm |
The catalog says why, rather than leaving the cell blank.
Three independent facets
Graded separately and never combined. A dataset can be perfectly current and completely unprovenanced, and one number would hide exactly that.
Provenance
DUntraced
No upstream source is recorded. This is a statement about what the catalog can show, not about how the data was produced: a carefully measured dataset with no recorded lineage grades D, because a user cannot trace it.
Documentation
BPartially documented
0 of 2 fields are fully documented, 2 carry a definition. 2 lack a unit.
Currency & maintenance
BAging
Last updated 2025-06-01 against a stated cadence of P1Y; it was due by 2026-08-30 and has not been updated since.
Visible without signing in, deliberately: an evaluator comparing catalogs should not have to register first.
- 12Complementary
- ECMWF ERA5 reanalysisStrength 2 of 5Complementary
Both feed: Capacity Expansion Modeling, Production Cost Modeling, Resource Adequacy and Siting and Land Use.
- · Shares 3 concept(s), including Global horizontal irradiance.
- · Both feed Capacity Expansion Modeling, Production Cost Modeling, Resource Adequacy and Siting and Land Use.
- · Coverage overlaps from 1998-01-01 to 2024-12-31.
- · Bounding boxes overlap over 19% of their combined extent.
- · Both are gridded.
- PyPSA-Eur weather cutoutsStrength 2 of 5Complementary
Both feed: Capacity Expansion Modeling and Production Cost Modeling.
- · Shares 3 concept(s), including Direct normal irradiance.
- · Both feed Capacity Expansion Modeling and Production Cost Modeling.
- · Coverage overlaps from 2013-01-01 to 2023-12-31.
- · Both are gridded.
- EIA natural gas prices and Short-Term Energy OutlookStrength 2 of 5Complementary
Both feed: Production Cost Modeling.
- · Both feed Production Cost Modeling.
- · Coverage overlaps from 1998-01-01 to 2024-12-31.
- · Bounding boxes overlap over 32% of their combined extent.
- Global Energy Monitor Global Integrated Power TrackerStrength 2 of 5Complementary
Both feed: Capacity Expansion Modeling and Production Cost Modeling.
- · Both feed Capacity Expansion Modeling and Production Cost Modeling.
- · Coverage overlaps from 2000-01-01 to 2024-12-31.
- · Bounding boxes overlap over 19% of their combined extent.
- Ember Global Electricity Review and Renewable Target TrackerStrength 2 of 5Complementary
Both feed: Capacity Expansion Modeling.
- · Both feed Capacity Expansion Modeling.
- · Coverage overlaps from 2000-01-01 to 2024-12-31.
- · Bounding boxes overlap over 19% of their combined extent.
- Global Wind AtlasStrength 2 of 5Complementary
Both feed: Siting and Land Use.
- · Shares 1 concept(s).
- · Both feed Siting and Land Use.
- · Coverage overlaps from 2008-01-01 to 2017-12-31.
- · Bounding boxes overlap over 24% of their combined extent.
- · Both are gridded.
- EIA-930 Hourly Electric Grid MonitorStrength 2 of 5Complementary
Both feed: Production Cost Modeling and Resource Adequacy.
- · Both feed Production Cost Modeling and Resource Adequacy.
- · Coverage overlaps from 2015-07-01 to 2024-12-31.
- · Bounding boxes overlap over 32% of their combined extent.
- Global Transmission DatabaseStrength 1 of 5Complementary
Both feed: Capacity Expansion Modeling and Production Cost Modeling.
- · Both feed Capacity Expansion Modeling and Production Cost Modeling.
- · Coverage overlaps from 2020-01-01 to 2024-01-01.
- · Bounding boxes overlap over 19% of their combined extent.
- NREL Annual Technology BaselineStrength 1 of 5Complementary
Both feed: Capacity Expansion Modeling.
- · Both feed Capacity Expansion Modeling.
- · Coverage overlaps from 2022-01-01 to 2024-12-31.
- · Bounding boxes overlap over 32% of their combined extent.
- ESA WorldCoverStrength 1 of 5Complementary
Both feed: Siting and Land Use.
- · Both feed Siting and Land Use.
- · Coverage overlaps from 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31.
- · Bounding boxes overlap over 24% of their combined extent.
- · Both are gridded.
- PyPSA-Eur grid dataset (pre-built OSM network)Strength 1 of 5Complementary
Both feed: Capacity Expansion Modeling and Production Cost Modeling.
- · Both feed Capacity Expansion Modeling and Production Cost Modeling.
- · Coverage overlaps from 2024-01-01 to 2024-08-01.
- OpenGrid Reference: Cascade InterconnectStrength 1 of 5Complementary
Both feed: Capacity Expansion Modeling and Production Cost Modeling.
- · Both feed Capacity Expansion Modeling and Production Cost Modeling.
OpenGrid redirects you to the source and never proxies the bytes. For a partial read of a large dataset, use the SDK — it fetches an access plan and reads only the slice you asked for.
HDF5 on anonymous S3, via the OEDI data lake
● Checked and working- Size:
- 512 GiB
- No account needed:
- Yes
- Supports byte ranges:
- ✓
CSV per point, on request
● Checked and working- No account needed:
- No
- Credentials:
- NREL developer API key, free on registration; rate-limited per key