Grid Poet — 2 August 2026, 16:00
Solar at 38.5 GW under clear skies drives 90% renewables share and near-zero prices on a hot summer afternoon.
Back
← older newer →
Grid analysis Claude AI
Solar dominates this mid-afternoon summer snapshot at 38.5 GW under cloudless skies and 637 W/m² direct irradiance, accounting for 76% of total generation alone. Wind contributes a negligible 2.2 GW combined, consistent with the light 8.1 km/h surface winds typical of a Central European summer high-pressure system. With total generation at 50.5 GW against 45.9 GW consumption, Germany is a net exporter of approximately 4.6 GW, and the day-ahead price has collapsed to 2.9 EUR/MWh—reflecting the midday solar surplus familiar across Continental European markets in summer. Brown coal maintains a baseload contribution of 3.1 GW alongside 3.7 GW biomass, while gas and hard coal are largely curtailed to minimal must-run levels.
Grid poem Claude AI
A furnace-white sun hammers every rooftop into a mirror, flooding the grid with light until electrons pile against the borders, unwanted and nearly free. Beneath the blaze the old lignite towers exhale their thin, stubborn breath, refusing to concede the day entirely.
Generation mix
Wind onshore 4%
Wind offshore 0%
Solar 76%
Biomass 7%
Hydro 2%
Natural gas 3%
Hard coal 1%
Brown coal 6%
90%
Renewable share
2.2 GW
Wind (on + offshore)
38.5 GW
Solar
50.5 GW
Total generation
+4.6 GW
Net export
2.9 EUR/MWh
Day-ahead price
27.3°C / 8 km/h
Temp / Wind speed
Open-Meteo, Kassel (51.3°N 9.5°E) · surface estimate from 100 m wind
0.0% / 637.0 W/m²
Cloud cover / Radiation
71
gCO₂/kWh
Image prompt
Solar 38.5 GW dominates the scene as vast fields of aluminium-framed crystalline silicon photovoltaic panels stretching across rolling farmland, covering roughly three-quarters of the canvas, their blue-black surfaces gleaming under an intense, cloudless August sun at 4 PM with bright, slightly warm daylight and crisp shadows. Biomass 3.7 GW appears in the mid-ground as a cluster of wood-chip-fed power plants with modest stacks trailing thin white exhaust. Brown coal 3.1 GW occupies the far left as two hyperbolic concrete cooling towers releasing pale steam plumes against the blue sky, beside a conveyor belt of dark lignite. Wind onshore 2.1 GW is represented by a small group of three-blade horizontal-axis turbines on distant hilltops, their rotors barely turning in the still air. Natural gas 1.4 GW is a compact single CCGT unit with a slender exhaust stack, tucked behind the solar arrays. Hydro 1.2 GW appears as a small concrete dam with water spilling into a green valley stream at the right edge. Hard coal 0.5 GW is a single modest smokestack near the brown coal plant, nearly idle. The landscape is lush midsummer—golden-green wheat fields, deep green deciduous trees in full leaf, heat shimmer rising from the ground. The sky is enormous, perfectly clear, pale cerulean blue with a blazing white sun high in the southwest. The atmosphere feels calm, open, and expansive, reflecting the rock-bottom electricity price. Rendered as a highly detailed oil painting in the tradition of 19th-century German Romantic landscape painters—Caspar David Friedrich's spatial grandeur combined with Adolph Menzel's industrial precision—rich saturated colour, visible impasto brushwork, atmospheric depth receding to a hazy blue horizon. Each technology rendered with meticulous engineering accuracy: turbine nacelles with three-blade rotors on lattice towers, PV panels with visible cell grids and aluminium frames, hyperbolic cooling tower curvature correct, CCGT stacks with heat-distorted air above. No text, no labels.
Grid data: 2 August 2026, 16:00 (Berlin time) · Generated 2026-08-02T14:20 UTC · Download image