Hourly generation by plant and county.zip
URL: https://data.openei.org/files/2881/hourly%20generation%20by%20plant%20and%20county.zip
UPV In addition to the annual solar summary statistics Berkeley Lab provides hourly generation estimates for 2964 utility-scale solar projects, starting at the project’s commercial operation date (or 2012 for older projects) until the end of 2019. A separate .csv file is listed for each UPV project, using the EIA plant ID as its filename. Records are indexed by UTC-Hour-Beginning datetimes. Here we summarize the data by column: SAM_gen: Modeled generation estimates using NREL’s System Advisory Model (SAM) with project-specific system characteristics reported in EIA Form 860 (augmented by data collected in the context of Berkeley Lab’s Utility-Scale Solar Project) and historical irradiance estimates in NREL’s National Solar Radiation Database (NSRDB). gen_bias: Modeled generation estimates for a debiasing process that are for the most part identical with SAM_gen. Minor deviations occur for projects where system characteristics were updated after the debiasing process was run, resulting in updated SAM_gen records. gen_bias_corrected: Debiased generation estimates where the modeled generation was scaled to fit the (1) project-specific solar generation reported by EIA Form 923 and (2) hourly system-wide solar generation for a subset of ISOs/RTOs and Balancing Areas. For a subset of projects in ERCOT, we directly report project-specific hourly generation that is publicly available 60 days after operations day. This is raw data that may contain commissioning data and telemetry errors.
gen_clean: Hourly generation estimates that are used as basis for value and system impact calculations throughout the report. Where feasible, we default to gen_bias_corrected estimates. When that data is not available, we use SAM_gen estimates. If curtailment is reported in the column gen_curtailed, gen_clean represents post-curtailment output. The file UPV_generation_overview_by_plant_year.csv summarizes which generation estimates are reported in this column by project and year. gen_curtailed: Estimated hourly curtailment for projects in CAISO and ERCOT.
DPV Berkeley Lab provides hourly distributed PV generation estimates for 2829 counties, starting in 2010 until the end of 2019. A separate .csv file is listed for each county, using the county’s 5-digit Federal Information Processing Series (FIPS) code as its filename. Records are indexed by UTC-Hour-Beginning datetimes. Here we summarize the data by column: DPV_res_MW and DPV_non_res_MW: Cumulative residential and non-residential PV capacity estimates expressed in MWAC terms. Data is derived from EIA form 861, Wood Mackenzie’s Solar Year in Review Series, and the Interstate Renewable Energy Council. CF: Capacity factor estimate derived from NREL’s SAM, using historical irradiance estimates of the NSRDB. System characteristics are informed by data collected in the context of Berkeley Lab’s Tracking the Sun Project. The capacity factor estimate is the same for residential and non-residential distributed PV installations. DPV_res_MWh and DPV_non_res_MWh: Hourly distributed solar generation estimate for the residential and non-residential sector. It represents the simple product of the hourly cumulative capacity estimate and the coincident capacity factor.
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Additional Information
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Data last updated | July 16, 2021 |
| Metadata last updated | November 22, 2025 |
| Created | July 16, 2021 |
| Format | ZIP |
| License | Creative Commons Attribution |
| Datastore active | False |
| Has views | False |
| Id | dbe856df-8a37-481a-adc8-ab89902a7030 |
| Mimetype | application/zip |
| Package id | 65402158-cbc7-4058-a370-9e7525ee417e |
| Position | 2 |
| State | active |