Grid Poet — 26 August 2026, 00:00
Wind and coal dominate midnight generation as elevated gas prices drive the day-ahead rate despite net exports.
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Grid analysis Claude AI
At midnight on a late-August night, Germany's grid draws 43.3 GW against 46.5 GW of domestic generation, yielding a net export of 3.2 GW. Wind contributes strongly at 19.4 GW combined (onshore 14.6 GW, offshore 4.8 GW), and together with 4.2 GW biomass and 1.4 GW hydro, renewables account for 53.8% of supply. Thermal baseload remains substantial, with brown coal at 9.8 GW, hard coal at 4.3 GW, and natural gas at 7.4 GW — a conventional fleet totaling 21.5 GW that reflects typical overnight commitment patterns and cross-border dispatch economics. The day-ahead price of 164 EUR/MWh is elevated for a nocturnal hour with net exports, likely driven by tight capacity margins across the broader European market or fuel-cost pass-through from gas-on-margin pricing.
Grid poem Claude AI
Beneath a starless August vault the turbines carve the restless dark, while lignite towers breathe their ancient plumes into the coal-black sky. The grid hums its midnight arithmetic — surplus spilling across borders, yet the price of power burns as hot as buried seams.
Generation mix
Wind onshore 31%
Wind offshore 10%
Biomass 9%
Hydro 3%
Natural gas 16%
Hard coal 9%
Brown coal 21%
54%
Renewable share
19.4 GW
Wind (on + offshore)
0.0 GW
Solar
46.5 GW
Total generation
+3.2 GW
Net export
164.0 EUR/MWh
Day-ahead price
16.5°C / 5 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
320
gCO₂/kWh
Image prompt
Brown coal 9.8 GW dominates the left quarter of the scene as a cluster of massive hyperbolic cooling towers with thick white-grey steam plumes rising into the black sky, lit from below by orange sodium lights illuminating the industrial complex; natural gas 7.4 GW fills the centre-left as three compact CCGT power blocks with tall single exhaust stacks emitting thin heat shimmer, their steel facades gleaming under floodlights; hard coal 4.3 GW appears just right of centre as a pair of smaller conventional boiler houses with stockpiled coal visible in lit yards; wind onshore 14.6 GW spans the entire right half of the canvas as dozens of three-blade turbines on tall lattice and tubular towers stretching into the distance across rolling hills, their red aviation warning lights blinking against the pitch-black sky, rotors visibly spinning in moderate breeze; wind offshore 4.8 GW is suggested on the far-right horizon as a line of turbines standing in a dark sea, tiny red lights marking their presence; biomass 4.2 GW appears as a mid-sized industrial plant with a wood-chip conveyor and a single smokestack near the coal complex, warmly lit; hydro 1.4 GW is rendered as a small dam and powerhouse nestled in a valley in the middle distance, water faintly reflecting the artificial lights. The sky is completely dark — no twilight, no moon, dense 100% cloud cover creating a heavy, oppressive ceiling that catches and diffuses the orange industrial glow from below, lending the atmosphere a brooding, pressured quality reflecting the high electricity price. Temperature is a mild 16.5°C late summer night; vegetation is lush and dark green where visible in lamplight, with late-summer foliage on trees. Central German landscape of gentle hills and mixed farmland. Painted in the style of a highly detailed 19th-century German Romantic oil painting — rich, dark palette dominated by deep navy, coal-black, and warm sodium-orange, with visible brushwork, dramatic chiaroscuro, and atmospheric depth. Every technology rendered with meticulous engineering accuracy: turbine nacelles, three-blade rotors, cooling tower parabolic profiles, CCGT exhaust geometries. No text, no labels.
Grid data: 26 August 2026, 00:00 (Berlin time) · Generated 2026-08-25T22:20 UTC · Download image