Panel data for utility solar PV and onshore wind costs and adoption with climate policy and macro variables

In 2023, countries with at least one cost observation account for about 97.8% of global utility-scale solar PV capacity and 98.7% of onshore wind capacity (generation coverage ≈97.0% and ≈98.5%), indicating that cost-covered jurisdictions span the vast majority of installed fleets. What’s inside. Core cost fields: Total installed costs (\$/kW), Module costs (\$/kW), Balance-of-System costs (\$/kW), LCOE (\$/kWh), and a source flag.

Deployment: Capacity (MW), Production (GWh), plus Electricity Installed Capacity and Electricity Generation. PriceLevel (PPP ratio) is provided to construct PPP-adjusted measures. Policy variables are annual instrument-specific stringency scores (prefixed LEV3_) suitable for econometric studies (e.g., feed-in tariffs, auctions, renewable certificates, ETS in electricity, carbon taxes, fossil-fuel subsidy reform, renewable expansion planning, coal phase-out/credit restrictions, energy R\&D).

Macro-institutional covariates support identification and robustness (finance, trade, growth, state capacity, inequality). Sources and harmonisation. Installed costs, LCOE, and component splits: IRENA compilations and a structured Baumgartner cost dataset (see Source per record).

Deployment: IRENA capacity and generation time series. Policy indicators: annual stringency indices mapped from OECD climate actions/policies to consistent instrument-level measures (LEV3_). Finance and macro covariates: World Bank (exchange rate, GDP and GDP per capita, GDP growth, trade/GDP, FDI inflows/GDP, unemployment, urbanization, oil rents/GDP, R\&D/GDP), 10-year government bond yields (BidYield), and inequality (GINI).

Technology capability and structure: IEA/clean-energy patent counts; product-space measures (Proximity, RCA). Intended use and limitations. Built for cross-country analyses of cost dynamics and policy effects, including panel econometrics, diffusion/cost modelling, and benchmarking of cost/diffusion trajectories.

Coverage is uneven in earlier years and smaller markets; some fields are missing where sources are silent. Among countries with any cost observation, 41 are high-income and 26 are middle/low-income, but parts of Africa and Asia remain under-represented. Policy stringency scores summarise heterogeneous national designs; users should run sensitivity checks and consult the source.