Grid Poet — 12 July 2026, 04:00
Wind and lignite anchor overnight generation while 11.8 GW of net imports fill the gap at elevated prices.
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Grid analysis Claude AI
At 04:00 on a mid-July night, domestic generation of 26.0 GW falls short of 37.8 GW consumption, requiring approximately 11.8 GW of net imports. Wind provides 10.6 GW combined (onshore 8.0 GW, offshore 2.6 GW), forming the backbone of overnight renewable output, while solar contributes nothing at this hour. Lignite baseload at 5.7 GW and natural gas at 3.3 GW provide significant thermal support, with hard coal adding 1.8 GW and biomass a steady 3.6 GW. The day-ahead price of 122.9 EUR/MWh reflects the substantial import requirement and reliance on dispatchable thermal generation during this overnight trough, a typical summer nighttime pattern when solar is absent and demand remains elevated from industrial baseload and overnight cooling.
Grid poem Claude AI
Beneath a starless vault the turbines turn their patient arms, while lignite towers breathe columns of pale steam into the void. The grid drinks deeply from distant wells of power, its hunger outpacing every spinning blade and smoldering hearth.
Generation mix
Wind onshore 31%
Wind offshore 10%
Solar 0%
Biomass 14%
Hydro 4%
Natural gas 13%
Hard coal 7%
Brown coal 22%
58%
Renewable share
10.6 GW
Wind (on + offshore)
0.0 GW
Solar
26.0 GW
Total generation
11.8 GW
Net import
122.9 EUR/MWh
Day-ahead price
12.3°C / 4 km/h
Temp / Wind speed
Open-Meteo, Kassel (51.3°N 9.5°E) · surface estimate from 100 m wind
70.0% / 0.0 W/m²
Cloud cover / Radiation
295
gCO₂/kWh
Image prompt
Brown coal 5.7 GW dominates the left quarter as a cluster of massive hyperbolic cooling towers with thick white steam plumes rising into the black sky, lit from below by sodium-orange industrial lighting; wind onshore 8.0 GW spans the centre-right as dozens of tall three-blade turbines on lattice and tubular towers stretching across rolling dark hills, their red aviation warning lights blinking; wind offshore 2.6 GW appears in the far right background as a row of turbines standing in a dark sea glimpsed through a gap in the terrain; biomass 3.6 GW sits in the centre-left as a mid-sized industrial plant with a wood-chip storage dome and a single exhaust stack emitting thin grey smoke, warmly lit by facility lights; natural gas 3.3 GW is rendered as a compact CCGT plant with twin exhaust stacks and a smaller cooling unit, positioned between the lignite complex and biomass facility, its stainless-steel surfaces gleaming under floodlights; hard coal 1.8 GW appears as a smaller conventional power station with a single large chimney and coal conveyors near the far left; hydro 1.0 GW is suggested by a small dam structure in a valley in the mid-ground with a faint cascade of water catching artificial light. The sky is completely dark, deep navy-black, no twilight, no sky glow, 70 percent cloud cover obscuring most stars, creating a heavy oppressive ceiling reflecting faint orange industrial light from below. The atmosphere is thick and weighty, conveying high electricity prices. Temperature is a cool 12 degrees Celsius in July, with lush green summer vegetation barely visible in the darkness, dew on grass catching lamplight. Light wind barely stirs the leaves. Painted in the style of a highly detailed 19th-century German Romantic oil painting — rich chiaroscuro, visible impasto brushwork, dramatic atmospheric depth — yet with meticulous engineering accuracy in every turbine nacelle, cooling tower profile, and industrial structure. No text, no labels.
Grid data: 12 July 2026, 04:00 (Berlin time) · Generated 2026-07-12T02:20 UTC · Download image