Starter data kits for whole energy system modelling in Sub-Saharan Africa

Whole energy system modelling is a data-intensive field that faces significant challenges in data acquisition and processing. This work introduces a comprehensive set of techno-economic datasets for whole energy system modelling, covering the 49 countries of Sub-Saharan Africa. To this end, we compiled and calculated data for 199 technologies spanning the entire energy supply–demand chain, resulting in 24,537 data records per country database and 1,202,313 records across the 49 datasets. The datasets cover primary energy production, fossil fuel processing, power generation, low-carbon technologies (e.g., hydrogen supply), agriculture, industry, households, services, and transport. This resource supports the development of energy system models for a wide range of applications, from capacity building and research to technical energy planning.