Grid Poet — 12 March 2026, 02:00
Strong wind (23.3 GW) and heavy brown coal (7.3 GW) anchor overnight generation, but 2.8 GW net imports fill the gap.
Back
Grid analysis Claude AI
At 2 AM on a March night, Germany's grid draws 45.2 GW while domestic generation reaches only 42.4 GW, requiring roughly 2.8 GW of net imports. Wind dominates renewables with 23.3 GW combined (onshore 17.6 GW + offshore 5.7 GW), yet the residual load of 21.8 GW forces heavy thermal dispatch: brown coal at 7.3 GW, natural gas at 4.5 GW, and hard coal at 2.1 GW. The day-ahead price of 88.8 EUR/MWh is notably high for a nighttime hour, reflecting the gap between supply and demand and the need for expensive thermal and import power despite strong wind generation. The low local wind speed of 2.9 km/h in central Germany contrasts with the high onshore wind output, indicating that the bulk of wind generation is concentrated in northern coastal and offshore regions.
Grid poem Claude AI
Beneath a starless March sky, iron towers exhale pale steam into the void while invisible northern gales spin a thousand blades in furious devotion. The grid thirsts still, drawing power from beyond its borders, its hunger unquenched by wind alone.
Generation mix
Wind onshore 42%
Wind offshore 14%
Biomass 9%
Hydro 3%
Natural gas 11%
Hard coal 5%
Brown coal 17%
67%
Renewable share
23.4 GW
Wind (on + offshore)
0.0 GW
Solar
42.4 GW
Total generation
-2.8 GW
Net import
88.8 €/MWh
Day-ahead price
6.2°C / 3 km/h
Temp / Wind speed
Open-Meteo, Kassel (51.3°N 9.5°E)
79% / 0.0 W/m²
Cloud cover / Radiation
232
gCO₂/kWh
Image prompt
Wind onshore 17.6 GW dominates the right half of the canvas as dozens of towering three-blade turbines on lattice towers stretching across a rolling North German Plain, rotors turning slowly against the dark sky; wind offshore 5.7 GW appears as a distant row of turbines on the far-right horizon line above a barely visible dark sea; brown coal 7.3 GW occupies the left quarter as massive hyperbolic cooling towers emitting thick white-grey steam plumes, lit from below by orange sodium lamps of a lignite power station complex in the Rhineland; natural gas 4.5 GW fills the centre-left as a compact CCGT plant with tall slender exhaust stacks venting thin heat shimmer, illuminated by industrial floodlights; hard coal 2.1 GW appears as a smaller coal-fired station with a single rectangular stack and conveyor belts beside a coal pile, glowing under amber work lights; biomass 3.9 GW is rendered as a modest wood-chip CHP facility with a low conical stack and warm interior glow visible through warehouse windows, positioned centre-right; hydro 1.1 GW is suggested by a small dam structure with spillway gleaming faintly at the far left edge. The time is 2 AM in March: the sky is completely black to deep navy, no twilight, no moon, heavy 79% cloud cover obscuring stars, creating an oppressive low ceiling reflecting the industrial glow beneath. The atmosphere is heavy, humid, and brooding — conveying the 88.8 EUR/MWh high price tension. Temperature 6.2 °C means bare deciduous trees, patches of frost on dormant fields, early spring but still wintry. Faint mist clings to the ground between turbine bases. Sodium-orange and cold-white industrial lighting casts dramatic contrasts. Style: highly detailed oil painting in the tradition of 19th-century German Romantic landscape painters — rich colour, visible impasto brushwork, atmospheric depth — Caspar David Friedrich meets industrial sublime. Meticulous engineering detail on turbine nacelles, cooling tower curvature, CCGT exhaust geometry. No text, no labels.
Grid data: 12 March 2026, 02:00 (Berlin time) · Generated 2026-03-12T03:36 UTC · Download image