Designing a zero-order energy transition model: a guide for creating a Starter Data Kit

The Paris Agreement was signed by 192 Parties, who committed to reducing emissions. Reaching such commitments by developing national decarbonisation strategies requires significant analyses and investment. Analyses for such strategies are often delayed due to a lack of accurate and up-to-date data for creating energy transition models. The Starter Data Kits address this issue by providing open-source, zero-level country datasets to accelerate the energy planning process. There is a strong demand for replicating the process of creating Starter Data Kits because they are currently only available for 69 countries in Africa, Asia, and South America. Using an African country as an example, this paper presents the methodology to create a Starter Data Kit from data collection to the creation of tool-agnostic data repositories. The paper illustrates the steps involved, provides additional information for conducting similar work in Asia and South America, and highlights the limitations of the current version of the Starter Data Kits. Future development is proposed to expand the datasets, including new and more accurate data and new energy sectors.