Grid Poet — 16 July 2026, 02:00
Brown coal leads at 10 GW as low wind and zero solar force heavy thermal and import reliance overnight.
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Grid analysis Claude AI
At 02:00 on a mid-July night, German consumption sits at 43.5 GW against domestic generation of 31.4 GW, requiring approximately 12.1 GW of net imports. Brown coal dominates the generation stack at 10.0 GW, supported by 5.4 GW of natural gas and 4.0 GW of hard coal — together these thermal sources account for 61.8% of output. Wind contributes a modest 6.9 GW combined (onshore 6.1 GW, offshore 0.8 GW), consistent with the low 3.1 km/h wind speed recorded in central Germany, while solar is naturally absent. The day-ahead price of 152.9 EUR/MWh reflects the tight supply-demand balance and heavy reliance on marginal thermal units and cross-border imports to cover the shortfall.
Grid poem Claude AI
Beneath a starless vault the brown towers breathe their endless columns into the still July dark, feeding a nation that sleeps but never stops consuming. Distant turbines turn with the faintest whisper, their meager harvest dwarfed by the glowing furnaces that own this quiet hour.
Generation mix
Wind onshore 20%
Wind offshore 2%
Biomass 12%
Hydro 5%
Natural gas 17%
Hard coal 13%
Brown coal 32%
38%
Renewable share
6.9 GW
Wind (on + offshore)
0.0 GW
Solar
31.4 GW
Total generation
12.0 GW
Net import
152.9 EUR/MWh
Day-ahead price
13.9°C / 3 km/h
Temp / Wind speed
Open-Meteo, Kassel (51.3°N 9.5°E) · surface estimate from 100 m wind
0.0% / 0.0 W/m²
Cloud cover / Radiation
440
gCO₂/kWh
Image prompt
Brown coal 10.0 GW dominates the left third of the scene as a vast complex of hyperbolic cooling towers with luminous steam plumes rising into the black sky, lit from below by orange sodium lamps on the plant grounds; natural gas 5.4 GW occupies the centre-left as a row of compact CCGT units with tall exhaust stacks emitting thin vapour, their turbine halls glowing with warm interior light through industrial windows; hard coal 4.0 GW appears centre-right as a dark hulking power station with conveyor belts and a single large chimney, red warning lights blinking on the stack; biomass 3.7 GW is rendered as a modest facility with cylindrical digesters and a low exhaust, softly lit; wind onshore 6.1 GW spans the right side as a scattered line of three-blade turbines on lattice and tubular towers, their rotors barely turning in the still air, red aviation lights on each nacelle; wind offshore 0.8 GW appears as two small distant turbines on the far right horizon; hydro 1.5 GW is a concrete dam structure with spillway visible in the middle distance, lit by floodlights. The sky is completely black — deep night at 2 AM in July with zero cloud cover, revealing a scattering of stars, but the atmosphere feels heavy and oppressive reflecting the high electricity price, with a faint industrial haze diffusing the artificial lights. The landscape is flat northern German terrain with summer-green vegetation barely discernible in the darkness, dew glistening on grass under lamplight. No sunlight, no solar panels anywhere. Painted in the style of a highly detailed 19th-century German Romantic oil painting — rich dark palette of deep navy, amber, and coal-black, with visible impasto brushwork, atmospheric sfumato in the steam plumes, and meticulous engineering accuracy in every turbine nacelle, cooling tower curvature, and CCGT exhaust stack. The mood is of monumental nocturnal industry. No text, no labels.
Grid data: 16 July 2026, 02:00 (Berlin time) · Generated 2026-07-16T00:20 UTC · Download image