🎉 Grid Poet just got an upgrade! Faster data, better charts. Welcome to the new version. 🌱⚡
Grid Poet — 17 April 2026, 16:00
Solar leads at 27.4 GW under overcast skies, but low wind forces ~15.5 GW net imports to meet demand.
Back
Grid analysis Claude AI
Solar dominates generation at 27.4 GW despite full cloud cover, benefiting from high diffuse and residual direct radiation typical of a warm April afternoon. Wind contributes a negligible 0.9 GW combined, reflecting near-calm conditions at 6.9 km/h. Thermal baseload from brown coal (4.5 GW), hard coal (1.7 GW), and gas (1.5 GW) supplements biomass (4.2 GW) and hydro (1.8 GW), yet domestic generation of 42.0 GW falls well short of 57.5 GW consumption, requiring approximately 15.5 GW of net imports. The day-ahead price of 81.8 EUR/MWh reflects this tight supply-demand balance and the cost of procuring substantial cross-border flows during a low-wind, high-demand afternoon.
Grid poem Claude AI
A veiled sun pours its pale gold across a million silicon faces, yet the land still hungers—distant borders send their rivers of electrons to feed the insatiable spring. Coal towers exhale their ancient breath beside humming wires, bridging the chasm between what the sky provides and what the nation demands.
Generation mix
Wind onshore 1%
Wind offshore 1%
Solar 65%
Biomass 10%
Hydro 4%
Natural gas 4%
Hard coal 4%
Brown coal 11%
82%
Renewable share
0.8 GW
Wind (on + offshore)
27.4 GW
Solar
42.0 GW
Total generation
-15.6 GW
Net import
81.8 €/MWh
Day-ahead price
21.2°C / 7 km/h
Temp / Wind speed
Open-Meteo, Kassel (51.3°N 9.5°E)
100.0% / 314.5 W/m²
Cloud cover / Radiation
136
gCO₂/kWh
Records
#1 Furnace Hour
Image prompt
Solar 27.4 GW dominates the scene as vast fields of aluminium-framed crystalline silicon PV panels stretching across the entire right two-thirds of the composition, angled southward on metal racking, reflecting diffuse white light. Brown coal 4.5 GW occupies the far left as three massive hyperbolic cooling towers with thick white steam plumes drifting eastward, beside a lignite conveyor belt and ash-grey bunker. Biomass 4.2 GW appears as a cluster of mid-sized rectangular boiler buildings with short flue stacks and woodchip storage piles, positioned left of centre. Hydro 1.8 GW is rendered as a concrete weir and small turbine house at the base of a gentle green hillside with water cascading through spillways, in the centre-left middle ground. Hard coal 1.7 GW shows a single dark steel-clad power station with a tall chimney emitting faint grey exhaust, next to a coal stockpile, positioned behind the biomass plant. Natural gas 1.5 GW appears as a compact CCGT unit with a single polished exhaust stack and slim vapour trail, tucked between the coal station and the solar fields. Wind onshore 0.6 GW is a pair of three-blade turbines with white tubular towers on a distant ridge, rotors barely turning. Wind offshore 0.3 GW is a single small turbine silhouette on the far horizon. The sky is entirely overcast with a thick, uniform layer of warm grey-white stratiform cloud at 16:00 in April, full diffuse daylight but no direct sun visible, casting soft shadowless illumination across the landscape. The atmosphere feels heavy and slightly oppressive, hinting at the elevated electricity price. Spring vegetation is lush—bright green deciduous trees in fresh leaf, yellow rapeseed fields bordering the solar arrays, wildflowers along dirt paths. Temperature is warm at 21°C, conveyed through hazy air and relaxed foliage. Central German rolling hills recede into atmospheric perspective. Overhead high-voltage transmission lines on lattice pylons cross the scene from left to right, symbolising the heavy import flows. Painted in the style of a highly detailed 19th-century German Romantic oil painting—rich layered colour, visible confident brushwork, dramatic atmospheric depth—yet with meticulous engineering accuracy on every turbine nacelle, PV module busbar, cooling tower shell, and exhaust stack. No text, no labels.
Grid data: 17 April 2026, 16:00 (Berlin time) · Generated 2026-04-17T14:20 UTC · Download image