Grid Poet — 13 May 2026, 17:00

Wind and solar each deliver ~15 GW, but 9.3 GW net imports are needed as evening demand peaks at 60.2 GW.

Grid analysis Claude AI

At 17:00 on a mid-May evening, Germany's grid draws 60.2 GW against 50.9 GW of domestic generation, requiring approximately 9.3 GW of net imports. Renewables contribute 72.1% of domestic generation, led by a strong pairing of onshore wind at 15.2 GW and late-afternoon solar at 15.3 GW — the latter holding up well despite 90% cloud cover, likely benefiting from diffuse irradiance and some direct radiation breaks at 339 W/m². Brown coal at 6.4 GW and natural gas at 4.3 GW provide the bulk of thermal baseload, with hard coal adding 3.5 GW, reflecting standard merit-order dispatch at a day-ahead price of 112.6 EUR/MWh — elevated but consistent with a high-demand early-evening hour requiring significant imports and thermal generation to bridge the gap as solar output begins its decline toward sunset.

Grid poem Claude AI

The turbines bow before a bruised and copper sky, their blades tracing prayers into the dimming light while coal towers exhale ghost-columns into the heavens. Beneath the failing sun, a million silicon faces catch the last scattered fire before the grid demands its tithe of flame and import.

Generation mix

Wind onshore 30%

Wind offshore 1%

Solar 30%

Biomass 8%

Hydro 3%

Natural gas 8%

Hard coal 7%

Brown coal 13%

72%

Renewable share

15.8 GW

Wind (on + offshore)

15.3 GW

Solar

50.9 GW

Total generation

-9.3 GW

Net import

112.6 €/MWh

Day-ahead price

13.2°C / 12 km/h

Temp / Wind speed

Open-Meteo, Kassel (51.3°N 9.5°E)

90.0% / 339.0 W/m²

Cloud cover / Radiation

196

gCO₂/kWh

Image prompt

Solar 15.3 GW fills the right third of the scene as vast fields of aluminium-framed crystalline silicon PV panels stretching across rolling green hillsides, angled toward a heavily overcast sky with faint warm breaks near the low horizon; onshore wind 15.2 GW dominates the centre and centre-right as dozens of tall three-blade turbines on lattice and tubular towers, rotors turning at moderate speed in a 12 km/h breeze, scattered across spring-green farmland; brown coal 6.4 GW occupies the left background as a cluster of massive hyperbolic cooling towers emitting thick white steam plumes that merge with the grey overcast; natural gas 4.3 GW appears centre-left as a compact CCGT plant with tall slender exhaust stacks and a visible heat shimmer; hard coal 3.5 GW sits behind the gas plant as a smaller conventional power station with a single rectangular chimney and conveyor belts; biomass 4.1 GW is rendered as a mid-sized industrial facility with a tall cylindrical silo and a modest stack emitting thin grey vapour, placed at far left; hydro 1.5 GW appears as a concrete dam and spillway nestled in a wooded valley at the far-left edge; offshore wind 0.6 GW is suggested by a handful of distant turbines on the hazy horizon line. TIME OF DAY: 17:00 dusk in May — the sky is a dramatic gradient from deep slate-grey overcast above to a narrow band of orange-copper glow along the western horizon, light rapidly fading, the underside of clouds catching the last warm tones while the upper sky darkens toward blue-grey. The atmosphere feels heavy and oppressive, reflecting the high electricity price — dense humid air, brooding clouds pressing low. Vegetation is lush mid-spring green, meadows dotted with wildflowers, deciduous trees in full new leaf. Temperature is cool, 13°C, with a slight mist clinging to low valleys. Style: highly detailed oil painting in the tradition of Caspar David Friedrich and Carl Blechen — rich impasto brushwork, luminous atmospheric depth, Romantic grandeur — but with meticulous engineering accuracy in every turbine nacelle, every PV cell reflection, every cooling tower's parabolic curve and riveted steel structure. No text, no labels.

Grid data: 13 May 2026, 17:00 (Berlin time) · Generated 2026-05-13T15:21 UTC · Download image