Grid Poet — 26 July 2026, 22:00
Strong wind and lignite anchor nighttime generation, but 10.8 GW net imports are needed to meet 46.9 GW demand.
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Grid analysis Claude AI
At 22:00 on a warm summer night, Germany draws 46.9 GW against 36.1 GW of domestic generation, resulting in approximately 10.8 GW of net imports. Wind provides the backbone at 19.7 GW combined (onshore 16.6, offshore 3.1), while brown coal contributes a notable 6.7 GW and biomass adds 4.3 GW of steady baseload. The day-ahead price of 148 EUR/MWh is elevated, reflecting the significant import requirement and the dispatch of higher-marginal-cost thermal units despite a respectable 69.5% renewable share. Gas (2.6 GW) and hard coal (1.7 GW) are running as mid-merit plants to narrow the gap, but the shortfall underscores that even strong nocturnal wind cannot fully displace the need for dispatchable generation and cross-border flows during a period of moderate summer demand.
Grid poem Claude AI
The turbines hum through overcast darkness, their invisible blades carving power from restless summer wind, yet the land still thirsts for more than the night can yield. Beneath a coal-stained canopy, old furnaces glow amber to fill the void where sunlight once stood sovereign.
Generation mix
Wind onshore 46%
Wind offshore 9%
Biomass 12%
Hydro 3%
Natural gas 7%
Hard coal 5%
Brown coal 19%
70%
Renewable share
19.7 GW
Wind (on + offshore)
0.0 GW
Solar
36.1 GW
Total generation
10.9 GW
Net import
148.0 EUR/MWh
Day-ahead price
20.3°C / 19 km/h
Temp / Wind speed
Open-Meteo, Kassel (51.3°N 9.5°E) · surface estimate from 100 m wind
100.0% / 0.0 W/m²
Cloud cover / Radiation
223
gCO₂/kWh
Image prompt
Wind onshore 16.6 GW dominates the right two-thirds of the scene as dozens of tall three-blade turbines with white lattice towers stretching across rolling dark hills, rotors spinning briskly in steady wind; brown coal 6.7 GW occupies the left background as a massive lignite power station with four hyperbolic cooling towers emitting thick steam plumes lit from below by amber sodium lamps; biomass 4.3 GW appears as a cluster of mid-sized industrial facilities with short chimneys and wood-chip conveyors in the left-centre, warmly lit windows glowing; wind offshore 3.1 GW is suggested on the far right horizon as a faint row of turbine silhouettes with red aviation warning lights blinking above a distant dark sea; natural gas 2.6 GW sits centre-left as two compact CCGT units with slender exhaust stacks venting thin heat shimmer; hard coal 1.7 GW appears as a smaller coal plant with a single square cooling tower near the lignite station; hydro 1.0 GW is a small illuminated dam structure in the foreground valley. The scene is set at 22:00 in full night — the sky is completely black and overcast with 100% cloud cover, no stars, no moon, no twilight glow whatsoever. All structures are lit only by artificial light: orange-yellow sodium streetlamps along access roads, floodlights on industrial facades, red blinking warning lights on turbine nacelles. The atmosphere is heavy and oppressive, reflecting the high electricity price — a thick humid haze diffuses the artificial lights into smeared haloes. Summer vegetation is lush but rendered in deep shadow, warm 20°C air suggested by leafy deciduous trees barely visible in lamplight. Painted in the style of a highly detailed 19th-century German Romantic oil painting — rich impasto brushwork, dramatic chiaroscuro, deep atmospheric perspective — yet every piece of energy infrastructure is rendered with meticulous engineering accuracy: three-blade rotor geometry, nacelle housings, hyperbolic concrete cooling tower curvature with condensation plumes, aluminium-clad gas turbine exhaust stacks. No text, no labels.
Grid data: 26 July 2026, 22:00 (Berlin time) · Generated 2026-07-26T20:20 UTC · Download image