  PyPSA-Eur, the first open model dataset of the European power system at the
transmission network level to cover the full ENTSO-E area, is presented. It
contains 6001 lines (alternating current lines at and above 220 kV voltage
level and all high voltage direct current lines), 3657 substations, a new open
database of conventional power plants, time series for electrical demand and
variable renewable generator availability, and geographic potentials for the
expansion of wind and solar power. The model is suitable both for operational
studies and generation and transmission expansion planning studies. The
continental scope and highly resolved spatial scale enables a proper
description of the long-range smoothing effects for renewable power generation
and their varying resource availability. The restriction to freely available
and open data encourages the open exchange of model data developments and eases
the comparison of model results. A further novelty of the dataset is the
publication of the full, automated software pipeline to assemble the
load-flow-ready model from the original datasets, which enables easy
replacement and improvement of the individual parts. This paper focuses on the
description of the network topology, the compilation of a European power plant
database and a top-down load time-series regionalisation. It summarises the
derivation of renewable wind and solar availability time-series from
re-analysis weather datasets and the estimation of renewable capacity
potentials restricted by land-use. Finally, validations of the dataset are
presented, including a new methodology to compare geo-referenced network
datasets to one another.
