The German energy grid, interpreted through AI. Updated hourly.

Grid Poet — 22 March 2026, 20:00
2% renewable
Brown coal (12.7 GW) and hard coal (5.2 GW) dominate a windless, post-sunset German grid at 164.7 EUR/MWh.
Grid analysis Claude AI
At 20:00 on a calm, clear March evening, the German grid is running almost exclusively on thermal generation, with brown coal providing 12.7 GW (70%) and hard coal contributing 5.2 GW (29%), together accounting for 98.4% of the 18.1 GW total. Renewables are effectively absent: solar is offline after sunset, onshore wind registers zero in near-still conditions (3.6 km/h), and offshore wind contributes a negligible 0.3 GW. The reported consumption of 0.0 GW alongside 18.1 GW of generation suggests a data gap in the demand figure rather than a true surplus; the day-ahead price of 164.7 EUR/MWh is consistent with a tight, coal-dominated evening supply stack under low wind conditions. This is a textbook Dunkelflaute evening where the absence of wind and solar forces the system back onto its lignite and hard-coal baseload fleet.
Grid poem Claude AI
Beneath a starless vault the brown towers breathe their ancient carbon hymn, uncontested and immense. No blade turns, no panel gleams — only the furnace-light of deep earth answers the darkened nation's call.
Generation mix
Wind offshore 2%
Hard coal 29%
Brown coal 70%
2%
Renewable share
0.3 GW
Wind (on + offshore)
0.0 GW
Solar
18.1 GW
Total generation
+18.1 GW
Net export
164.7 €/MWh
Day-ahead price
9.1°C / 4 km/h
Temp / Wind speed
Open-Meteo, Kassel (51.3°N 9.5°E)
Grid data: 22 March 2026, 20:00 (Berlin time)
Carbon intensity
787 gCO₂/kWh
EU 2023
242
DE 2023
~380
0200400600800
Now: 787 gCO₂/kWh EU 2023: 242 gCO₂/kWh DE 2023: ~380 gCO₂/kWh Today avg: 274 gCO₂/kWh
Direct operational emissions (combustion only). Wind · solar · hydro · biomass: 0 gCO₂/kWh. Lignite: 820 · Hard coal: 750 · Gas (CCGT): 490. Sources: UBA, IPCC AR6.
7-day renewable share 20h ago
Day-ahead price — 2026-03-22 + forecast 2026-03-23 click line name to show/hide

Residual load = consumption − wind − solar. It is the net demand that dispatchable plants — coal, gas, biomass, hydro, storage — plus cross-border exchanges must balance. When it is high, expensive thermal capacity is needed and prices rise with it. As residual load falls, wind and solar displace more thermal generation, pulling prices down. When it turns negative, wind and solar output alone exceeds all consumption: controllable plants ramp to their technical minimums, storage absorbs what it can, and the grid exports heavily — often with prices turning negative too.
Forecast (dashed): tomorrow's predicted DA price (P50 median) with P10–P90 uncertainty band. Full forecast →

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European day-ahead prices click market name to show/hide

EUR/MWh. GB: system price in GBP (balancing, not DA auction). Source: Energy-Charts, Elexon. Full markets dashboard →

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Data Monument — 22 March 2026, 21:00
22 March 2026, 21:00