Grid Poet — 20 August 2026, 02:00
Coal and gas dominate overnight generation as moderate wind and 8.9 GW net imports cover summer nighttime demand.
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Grid analysis Claude AI
At 02:00 on a summer night, Germany's grid draws 40.0 GW against 31.1 GW of domestic generation, requiring approximately 8.9 GW of net imports. Thermal plants carry the bulk of dispatchable supply: brown coal at 6.2 GW, natural gas at 6.7 GW, and hard coal at 4.6 GW together provide 56.3% of domestic output. Wind contributes a combined 8.6 GW (onshore 7.7, offshore 0.9), a moderate but underwhelming performance given the season, reflecting the light 7.3 km/h surface winds. The day-ahead price of 153.7 EUR/MWh is elevated for a nighttime hour, consistent with the heavy reliance on imports and gas-fired generation to cover the supply gap.
Grid poem Claude AI
Beneath a starless August vault the furnaces hold court, their coal-fed breath ascending where the absent wind falls short. The grid reaches across dark borders, buying foreign watts to bridge the hollow hours before the sun remembers what it taught.
Generation mix
Wind onshore 25%
Wind offshore 3%
Biomass 12%
Hydro 4%
Natural gas 21%
Hard coal 15%
Brown coal 20%
44%
Renewable share
8.7 GW
Wind (on + offshore)
0.0 GW
Solar
31.1 GW
Total generation
8.9 GW
Net import
153.7 EUR/MWh
Day-ahead price
16.0°C / 7 km/h
Temp / Wind speed
Open-Meteo, Kassel (51.3°N 9.5°E) · surface estimate from 100 m wind
89.0% / 0.0 W/m²
Cloud cover / Radiation
379
gCO₂/kWh
Image prompt
Brown coal 6.2 GW dominates the left quarter as a cluster of massive hyperbolic cooling towers with thick white-grey steam plumes rising into blackness; natural gas 6.7 GW fills the centre-left as two compact CCGT power blocks with tall slender exhaust stacks emitting faint heat shimmer, lit by sodium-orange industrial floodlights; hard coal 4.6 GW appears centre-right as a large conventional power station with a single wide chimney and conveyor gantries, warm amber light spilling from its boiler house windows; wind onshore 7.7 GW spans the right third as a scattered line of tall three-blade turbines on lattice and tubular towers, their rotors turning slowly, red aviation warning lights blinking at each nacelle; wind offshore 0.9 GW is barely suggested as two distant turbines on the far-right horizon above a dark river; biomass 3.7 GW appears as a mid-sized industrial plant with a short stack and a woodchip storage dome, warmly lit, nestled between the coal plant and the turbines; hydro 1.3 GW is represented by a small concrete dam with spillway and a powerhouse with lit windows at the far left edge beside the cooling towers. The sky is completely black with no twilight or glow, heavy 89% cloud cover erasing all stars, creating an oppressive low ceiling reflecting the orange-sodium industrial glow from below. Temperature is mild summer 16°C: lush dark-green deciduous trees with full canopies line the mid-ground, grass is thick and damp. The atmosphere feels heavy and costly — humid haze diffuses every light source into haloes. A wide river in the foreground reflects the industrial lights in amber and white streaks. Painted in the style of a highly detailed 19th-century German Romantic oil painting — rich impasto brushwork, dramatic chiaroscuro, atmospheric depth receding into industrial murk — yet every turbine nacelle, cooling tower profile, and CCGT stack is rendered with meticulous engineering accuracy. No text, no labels.
Grid data: 20 August 2026, 02:00 (Berlin time) · Generated 2026-08-20T00:20 UTC · Download image