Grid Poet — 18 August 2026, 18:00
Wind leads at 15.5 GW but heavy cloud, fading light, and 56 GW demand drive coal, gas, and 14.4 GW net imports.
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Grid analysis Claude AI
At 18:00 on an overcast August evening, Germany's grid draws 56.1 GW against 41.7 GW of domestic generation, requiring approximately 14.4 GW of net imports. Wind contributes a combined 15.5 GW (onshore 13.1, offshore 2.4), the single largest source, while solar delivers only 5.4 GW under full cloud cover as the sun angles low. Thermal generation is substantial: brown coal at 5.3 GW, hard coal at 4.3 GW, and natural gas at 6.1 GW collectively provide 15.7 GW to cover the residual load. The day-ahead price of 178.6 EUR/MWh reflects the tight supply-demand balance, elevated import dependency, and the cost of dispatching coal and gas units during evening peak demand.
Grid poem Claude AI
Beneath a leaden sky the turbines turn their restless hymn, while coal-fires glow in furnace throats to fill what wind alone cannot. The grid stretches taut as a wire across the darkening August plain, buying power from distant borders as evening swallows the last grey light.
Generation mix
Wind onshore 31%
Wind offshore 6%
Solar 13%
Biomass 9%
Hydro 3%
Natural gas 14%
Hard coal 10%
Brown coal 13%
62%
Renewable share
15.5 GW
Wind (on + offshore)
5.4 GW
Solar
41.7 GW
Total generation
14.4 GW
Net import
178.6 EUR/MWh
Day-ahead price
18.2°C / 14 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
252
gCO₂/kWh
Image prompt
Wind onshore 13.1 GW dominates the right half of the scene as dozens of three-blade turbines on lattice and tubular towers stretching across rolling green hills, rotors visibly spinning in moderate wind. Wind offshore 2.4 GW appears as a distant cluster of taller turbines on the far-right horizon, barely visible through haze. Brown coal 5.3 GW occupies the left foreground as a massive lignite power station with three hyperbolic cooling towers exhaling thick white steam plumes into the overcast sky. Hard coal 4.3 GW sits just right of centre-left as a large coal plant with tall rectangular boiler houses, conveyor belts carrying black coal, and a single tall chimney trailing grey smoke. Natural gas 6.1 GW fills the centre as two compact CCGT units with sleek exhaust stacks and visible heat shimmer from their outlets. Biomass 3.8 GW appears as a medium-sized industrial facility in the mid-ground left with wood-chip storage silos and a modest smokestack. Hydro 1.3 GW is a small run-of-river station along a green-banked river in the lower foreground, water churning through spillways. Solar 5.4 GW appears as a field of aluminium-framed crystalline silicon panels in the centre-right mid-ground, their surfaces dull and unreflective under the completely overcast sky — no sunshine, no glint. The sky is entirely covered with heavy, low, oppressive grey stratus clouds — 100% cloud cover — with no break and no direct sunlight. The lighting is late dusk at 18:00 in August: a faint warm orange-red glow barely visible along the western horizon beneath the cloud layer, the upper sky already darkening to slate grey. The atmosphere feels heavy, pressured, almost suffocating, reflecting the high electricity price. Vegetation is lush midsummer green — full deciduous canopies, tall grasses. Temperature is mild, no heat haze. Style: highly detailed oil painting in the tradition of 19th-century German Romantic landscape painters such as Caspar David Friedrich and Carl Blechen — rich colour palette of greys, steel blues, amber horizon glow, and industrial ochres — visible confident brushwork — atmospheric depth with layers of mist between the industrial facilities — meticulous engineering detail on every turbine nacelle, cooling tower, PV panel frame, and smokestack — the scene reads as a grand masterwork painting of the modern industrial energy landscape. No text, no labels, no people.
Grid data: 18 August 2026, 18:00 (Berlin time) · Generated 2026-08-18T16:20 UTC · Download image