DaTA: Data for Technology Assessment
Building the Data Backbone for Future Energy Systems
The transition toward sustainable, resilient, and integrated multi-energy systems is one of the defining challenges of our time. While significant progress has been made in developing innovative technologies, ranging from advanced materials for energy conversion and storage to intelligent system architectures, technological innovation alone is not sufficient. As of today, both system-level research and technology-specific development face a common challenge: the lack of a comprehensive, open, and coherent data repository that connects techno-economic parameters with real-world operational insights.
A coherent picture from material science to socio-economic studies
The DaTA project addresses this gap by developing a publicly accessible data repository that supports research linking the Helmholtz programs “Energy System Design” (ESD) and “Materials and Technologies for the Energy Transition” (MTET). It provides reference data and benchmarks for the scientific community by combining reliable experimental and operational insights from materials science and energy technologies with techno-economic parameters that serve as target values for future development. The repository integrates key indicators—such as costs, efficiencies, and lifetimes—with real-world performance data, including behavior under varying conditions, degradation effects, and system interactions.
Benchmark cases for coupled power and gas system studies
Benchmark cases for coupled power and gas system studies have been developed based on geographically consistent models of the German transmission networks. The cases differ in system size and complexity and include representative profiles for electricity and gas demand as well as renewable generation. This work can be used for method development and validation as well as scalability evaluation. The current release focuses on power and gas transmission grids. Further development is planned to extent the benchmark framework to additional simulation tools, distribution networks, and other energy domains, such as district heating networks.