Grid Poet — 20 July 2026, 04:00
Wind leads at 20.5 GW overnight; coal and gas fill residual load as zero solar and tight margins drive elevated prices.
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Grid analysis Claude AI
At 04:00 on a summer night, German consumption sits at 42.4 GW against 37.9 GW domestic generation, requiring approximately 4.5 GW of net imports. Wind dominates at a combined 20.5 GW onshore and offshore, providing the backbone of overnight supply and keeping the renewable share at 67.1%. Brown coal contributes a substantial 6.8 GW baseload, complemented by 3.0 GW hard coal and 2.7 GW gas — thermal plants dispatched to cover the residual load gap. The day-ahead price of 131.3 EUR/MWh is notably elevated for a nighttime summer hour, likely reflecting tight supply margins across the interconnected European market and the need for thermal and import capacity to bridge the gap left by zero solar output.
Grid poem Claude AI
The wind howls through the dark July fields, tireless and unseen, while coal furnaces glow amber beneath a starless, overcast sky, feeding a nation that sleeps but never stops consuming. The turbines turn and turn, sentinels of the small hours, yet still the grid reaches across borders, drawing current like breath drawn in sleep.
Generation mix
Wind onshore 44%
Wind offshore 10%
Biomass 10%
Hydro 3%
Natural gas 7%
Hard coal 8%
Brown coal 18%
67%
Renewable share
20.5 GW
Wind (on + offshore)
0.0 GW
Solar
37.9 GW
Total generation
4.5 GW
Net import
131.3 EUR/MWh
Day-ahead price
11.9°C / 8 km/h
Temp / Wind speed
Open-Meteo, Kassel (51.3°N 9.5°E) · surface estimate from 100 m wind
97.0% / 0.0 W/m²
Cloud cover / Radiation
241
gCO₂/kWh
Image prompt
Wind onshore 16.8 GW dominates the right two-thirds of the scene as dozens of tall three-blade turbines with white lattice towers stretching across rolling central German farmland, blades slowly turning in moderate wind. Wind offshore 3.7 GW appears as a distant cluster of larger turbines on the far-right horizon, barely visible against a black overcast sky. Brown coal 6.8 GW occupies the left foreground as a massive lignite power station with four hyperbolic cooling towers emitting thick white-grey steam plumes glowing faintly from internal industrial sodium lighting. Hard coal 3.0 GW sits adjacent as a smaller coal plant with a single tall smokestack and conveyor belts visible under orange floodlights. Natural gas 2.7 GW appears as a compact CCGT facility with twin exhaust stacks and a smaller cooling unit, positioned between the coal plants and the wind turbines, its steel surfaces reflecting amber security lights. Biomass 3.8 GW is rendered as a mid-sized industrial plant with a rounded fermentation dome and a modest chimney, positioned in the left-center middle ground, warmly lit from within. Hydro 1.1 GW appears as a small run-of-river station along a dark river in the lower-left corner, with water glinting under a single floodlight. The time is 4:00 AM in July — the sky is completely dark, deep black-navy, heavily overcast at 97% cloud cover with no stars, no moon, no twilight glow whatsoever. The only illumination comes from sodium streetlights casting orange pools, industrial floodlights on the power stations, and the faint red aviation warning lights atop the wind turbines dotting the darkness. The temperature is a cool 11.9°C; summer vegetation is lush but invisible except where caught by artificial light — damp green grass, mature wheat fields. The atmosphere is heavy and oppressive, with low-hanging clouds pressing down, reflecting the amber glow of the industrial complex. Mist hangs in the river valley. Painted in the style of a highly detailed 19th-century German Romantic oil painting — rich dark tones, visible impasto brushwork, dramatic chiaroscuro between the black sky and the glowing industrial facilities, atmospheric depth receding into murky distance, technically accurate engineering details on every turbine nacelle, cooling tower ribbing, and exhaust stack. No text, no labels.
Grid data: 20 July 2026, 04:00 (Berlin time) · Generated 2026-07-20T02:20 UTC · Download image