Grid Poet — 13 August 2026, 18:00
Solar leads at 17.5 GW but heat-driven 55 GW demand requires coal, gas, and 13 GW net imports at 204 EUR/MWh.
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Grid analysis Claude AI
At 18:00 on a hot August evening, solar generation remains strong at 17.5 GW thanks to clear skies and 362 W/m² direct radiation, though it is past peak and declining toward sunset. Wind contributes a modest 5.3 GW combined, consistent with the light 11.1 km/h surface winds. Thermal baseload is substantial: brown coal at 6.4 GW, hard coal at 3.5 GW, and natural gas at 4.4 GW are all dispatched to cover a 13.0 GW residual load gap, with the remaining shortfall of approximately 13.0 GW met by net imports. The day-ahead price of 204 EUR/MWh reflects high summer demand driven by cooling loads at 31.3 °C, tight supply margins, and the need for significant thermal and import capacity despite a 65.8% renewable share.
Grid poem Claude AI
The sun blazes low over a parched land, its golden flood still pouring from cloudless heavens while dark stacks exhale their ancient carbon debt. Thirteen gigawatts flow in from distant borders, bought at a price that makes the summer shimmer like a furnace door left ajar.
Generation mix
Wind onshore 10%
Wind offshore 3%
Solar 42%
Biomass 9%
Hydro 3%
Natural gas 11%
Hard coal 8%
Brown coal 15%
66%
Renewable share
5.3 GW
Wind (on + offshore)
17.5 GW
Solar
42.0 GW
Total generation
13.0 GW
Net import
204.0 EUR/MWh
Day-ahead price
31.3°C / 11 km/h
Temp / Wind speed
Open-Meteo, Kassel (51.3°N 9.5°E) · surface estimate from 100 m wind
0.0% / 362.0 W/m²
Cloud cover / Radiation
240
gCO₂/kWh
Image prompt
Solar 17.5 GW dominates the right half of the scene as vast fields of aluminium-framed crystalline silicon PV panels stretching across sun-scorched farmland, their glass surfaces catching fierce orange-gold light; brown coal 6.4 GW occupies the left foreground as three massive hyperbolic cooling towers with thick white steam plumes rising against the sky; hard coal 3.5 GW appears just behind as a smaller coal plant with a single rectangular boiler house and tall chimney trailing grey smoke; natural gas 4.4 GW sits centre-left as two compact CCGT units with slender exhaust stacks venting clear heat shimmer; wind onshore 4.1 GW is rendered as a scattered line of three-blade turbines on a distant ridge, rotors turning slowly; wind offshore 1.2 GW is suggested by tiny turbines on a hazy horizon line; biomass 3.7 GW appears as a modest wood-chip plant with a small dome and thin white exhaust near the village edge; hydro 1.1 GW is a small run-of-river weir with a low concrete dam visible beside a sluggish, heat-thinned river in the mid-ground. The lighting is late-evening dusk at 18:00 in August: the sun is still above the horizon but low, casting long dramatic shadows and intense amber-orange light across the landscape, with the sky transitioning from warm gold near the horizon to deeper blue overhead — no clouds at all, perfectly clear. The atmosphere feels heavy, oppressive, and shimmering with heat haze at 31 °C, dry golden grass and wilting summer vegetation suggesting prolonged heat. High-voltage transmission pylons march across the background, symbolising the heavy import flows. Painted in the style of a highly detailed 19th-century German Romantic oil painting — rich saturated colour, visible confident brushwork, dramatic chiaroscuro from the low sun, atmospheric depth and haze — yet every piece of engineering rendered with meticulous technical accuracy: turbine nacelles, lattice towers, PV cell grids, cooling tower parabolic curves, CCGT exhaust geometry. No text, no labels.
Grid data: 13 August 2026, 18:00 (Berlin time) · Generated 2026-08-13T16:20 UTC · Download image