Grid Poet — 22 August 2026, 02:00
Coal, gas, and wind share nighttime generation as 7.2 GW net imports cover a supply shortfall at elevated prices.
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Grid analysis Claude AI
At 02:00 on a summer night, German consumption sits at 37.3 GW against 30.1 GW domestic generation, requiring approximately 7.2 GW of net imports. Wind contributes a combined 8.7 GW (onshore 6.2, offshore 2.5), moderate for the season but insufficient to displace thermal baseload. Brown coal at 5.8 GW, hard coal at 4.5 GW, and natural gas at 5.9 GW together provide 16.2 GW — over half of domestic output — reflecting a tight overnight market with the day-ahead price elevated at 158.7 EUR/MWh. The high price is consistent with the significant import requirement and reliance on marginal thermal units despite moderate renewable availability.
Grid poem Claude AI
Beneath a sealed and starless vault the furnaces breathe without rest, their amber glow the only dawn this burdened grid will know. Import cables hum taut across invisible borders, ferrying borrowed megawatts into a land whose wind alone cannot quiet the coal.
Generation mix
Wind onshore 21%
Wind offshore 8%
Biomass 12%
Hydro 5%
Natural gas 20%
Hard coal 15%
Brown coal 19%
46%
Renewable share
8.7 GW
Wind (on + offshore)
0.0 GW
Solar
30.1 GW
Total generation
7.2 GW
Net import
158.7 EUR/MWh
Day-ahead price
15.6°C / 5 km/h
Temp / Wind speed
Open-Meteo, Kassel (51.3°N 9.5°E) · surface estimate from 100 m wind
99.0% / 0.0 W/m²
Cloud cover / Radiation
365
gCO₂/kWh
Image prompt
Brown coal 5.8 GW dominates the left quarter as three massive hyperbolic cooling towers with thick white-grey steam plumes rising into the black sky, lit from below by sodium-orange industrial lamps; hard coal 4.5 GW sits just right of centre as a large coal-fired power station with rectangular stacks and conveyor belts, coal piles visible under floodlights; natural gas 5.9 GW occupies the centre as two compact CCGT units with tall single exhaust stacks emitting thin heat shimmer, their metallic casings gleaming under harsh white facility lighting; wind onshore 6.2 GW fills the right third as a long row of tall three-blade turbines on lattice towers, their rotors turning slowly, red aviation warning lights blinking on nacelles against the deep-black sky; wind offshore 2.5 GW is suggested on the far-right horizon as a cluster of smaller turbine silhouettes with blinking red lights above a faintly reflective dark sea; biomass 3.7 GW appears as a mid-sized industrial plant with a single stack and warm amber glow between the coal station and the gas units; hydro 1.5 GW is a modest concrete dam structure at the far left edge, spillway faintly illuminated. The sky is completely black with 99% cloud cover — no stars, no moon, no twilight — a dense oppressive overcast ceiling pressing down, hinting at the high electricity price. Summer vegetation — lush dark green deciduous trees and tall grass — is barely discernible in the peripheral glow of facility lights. The ground is damp from humid night air. The overall mood is heavy, industrial, and tense. Rendered as a highly detailed oil painting in the tradition of 19th-century German Romantic landscape painting — rich impasto brushwork, dramatic chiaroscuro from artificial light sources against absolute darkness, atmospheric depth with steam and haze layering the middle distance, meticulous engineering detail on every turbine nacelle, cooling tower rib structure, and gas-turbine exhaust stack. No text, no labels.
Grid data: 22 August 2026, 02:00 (Berlin time) · Generated 2026-08-22T00:20 UTC · Download image