Grid Poet — 14 March 2026, 04:00
Brown coal, wind onshore, gas, and hard coal power Germany's 4 AM grid; 5.2 GW net imports fill the gap.
Back
Grid analysis Claude AI
At 4 AM on a cold March night, Germany's grid draws 43.0 GW against only 37.8 GW of domestic generation, requiring approximately 5.2 GW of net imports. Brown coal dominates at 10.1 GW, forming the baseload backbone alongside 5.2 GW of hard coal and 5.6 GW of natural gas — together these fossil sources provide over 55% of generation. Wind onshore contributes a respectable 11.0 GW despite moderate 10.1 km/h winds, while solar is completely absent in the pre-dawn darkness. The day-ahead price of 105.1 EUR/MWh is notably elevated, reflecting tight supply-demand conditions with heavy reliance on expensive thermal dispatch and cross-border imports to close the 5.2 GW gap.
Grid poem Claude AI
Beneath a starless vault of coal-smoke and cloud, the furnaces of the Rhineland roar through the bitter night, their towers breathing ghost-white plumes into the void. Somewhere beyond the darkness, turbine blades carve wind into light — but still the grid hungers, drawing power from distant lands to feed its sleepless demand.
Generation mix
Wind onshore 29%
Wind offshore 2%
Biomass 11%
Hydro 3%
Natural gas 15%
Hard coal 14%
Brown coal 27%
45%
Renewable share
11.8 GW
Wind (on + offshore)
0.0 GW
Solar
37.8 GW
Total generation
-5.2 GW
Net import
105.1 €/MWh
Day-ahead price
3.8°C / 10 km/h
Temp / Wind speed
Open-Meteo, Kassel (51.3°N 9.5°E)
100% / 0.0 W/m²
Cloud cover / Radiation
394
gCO₂/kWh
Image prompt
Brown coal 10.1 GW dominates the left third of the scene as a massive lignite power complex with four hyperbolic cooling towers emitting thick white-grey steam plumes rising into blackness; hard coal 5.2 GW appears left-of-centre as a pair of tall industrial chimneys with red aviation warning lights and dark conveyor infrastructure; natural gas 5.6 GW occupies the centre as two compact CCGT plants with single sleek exhaust stacks venting pale heat shimmer, lit by sodium-orange floodlights; wind onshore 11.0 GW spans the right half of the composition as dozens of three-blade turbines on lattice and tubular towers stretching across rolling hills into the distance, their red nacelle warning lights blinking in the darkness; biomass 4.0 GW appears as a modest wood-chip-fed plant with a single squat stack near the centre-right; hydro 1.2 GW is suggested by a small dam structure with illuminated spillway at the far right edge; wind offshore 0.8 GW is barely visible as a faint cluster of tiny red lights on the far horizon suggesting distant North Sea turbines. The sky is completely black and starless with 100% cloud cover — no moon, no twilight, no sky glow — a pitch-dark early March night at 4 AM. Temperature near freezing: bare skeletal trees with no leaves, patches of frost on the ground, dormant brown grass. The atmosphere is heavy, oppressive, and industrial, reflecting the high 105.1 EUR/MWh electricity price — dense low clouds trapping the amber glow of sodium streetlights and industrial floodlights, creating a claustrophobic orange-tinged haze over the coal complexes. Cooling tower steam merges with the overcast above. A high-voltage transmission line with lattice pylons cuts across the middle ground, cables sagging with imported power. Highly detailed oil painting in the tradition of 19th-century German Romantic landscape painters — rich chiaroscuro between deep blacks and warm industrial amber, visible impasto brushwork, atmospheric depth receding into murky darkness — but with meticulous engineering accuracy on every turbine nacelle, cooling tower profile, and exhaust stack. A dramatic, brooding industrial nocturne. No text, no labels.
Grid data: 14 March 2026, 04:00 (Berlin time) · Generated 2026-03-14T05:10 UTC · Download image