Back GRID POET 9 March 2026, 11:00
Grid Poet — 9 March 2026, 11:00
Massive 39.4 GW solar dominates under clear skies while wind collapses; coal and gas provide 17.6 GW baseload support.
Grid analysis Claude AI
This March midday snapshot reveals an extraordinary solar surge of 39.4 GW under perfectly clear skies and 313 W/m² direct radiation — an exceptional output for early March suggesting rapid PV capacity expansion in Germany. Despite 72.3% renewable share, wind is virtually absent at just 1.0 GW combined (onshore + offshore), reflecting the near-calm 4.9 km/h wind speed. Thermal baseload remains stubbornly high: brown coal at 8.4 GW, hard coal at 4.2 GW, and natural gas at 5.0 GW collectively deliver 17.6 GW, indicating either inflexible must-run commitments or grid stability requirements. Total generation of 63.4 GW exceeds consumption of 61.7 GW, yielding a net export of 1.7 GW, while the day-ahead price of 81 EUR/MWh remains elevated — surprisingly high given the massive solar flood, likely driven by tight conditions in neighboring markets or ramping costs from the thermal fleet compensating for the near-zero wind.
Grid poem Claude AI
A thousand glass fields drink the cloudless March sun, painting the grid in golden watts while coal towers brood in stubborn vigil. The wind has abandoned the turbines to silence, yet the blazing noon pours power like a river that cannot be dammed.
Generation mix
Wind onshore 1%
Wind offshore 0%
Solar 62%
Biomass 7%
Hydro 2%
Natural gas 8%
Hard coal 7%
Brown coal 13%
72%
Renewable share
1.0 GW
Wind (on + offshore)
39.4 GW
Solar
63.4 GW
Total generation
+1.7 GW
Net export
81.0 €/MWh
Day-ahead price
8.7°C / 5 km/h
Temp / Wind speed
Open-Meteo, Kassel (51.3°N 9.5°E)
0% / 313.0 W/m²
Cloud cover / Radiation
197
gCO₂/kWh
Image prompt
Solar 39.4 GW dominates the scene as an immense rolling landscape of crystalline silicon photovoltaic panels covering roughly 62% of the composition — thousands of aluminium-framed blue-black panels stretching across gentle Thuringian hills in the centre and right, glinting fiercely under a brilliant, cloudless late-morning sun high in a pale blue spring sky. Brown coal 8.4 GW occupies the far left as a cluster of massive hyperbolic cooling towers with thick white steam plumes rising vertically in the still air, beside open-pit lignite excavation terraces. Natural gas 5.0 GW appears as two compact CCGT combined-cycle gas turbine plants with tall singular exhaust stacks and thin grey exhaust streams, placed left of centre between the coal complex and the solar fields. Hard coal 4.2 GW is rendered as a classical coal-fired power station with a large rectangular boiler house, conveyor belts, and a single tall chimney with dark smoke, positioned just behind the gas plants. Biomass 4.2 GW appears as a mid-sized wood-chip power plant with conical fuel silos and a modest smokestack near a small forest edge at left-centre. Hydro 1.3 GW is a small run-of-river weir with water cascading over a concrete dam in the lower-left foreground, with foam and spray. Wind onshore 0.9 GW and offshore 0.1 GW: only two or three distant three-blade turbines on lattice towers stand at the far-right horizon, their rotors completely still, emphasising the windless day. Early spring vegetation: bare deciduous trees just beginning to bud, pale green grass, patches of brown earth — temperature around 9°C. The atmosphere feels heavy and slightly oppressive despite the sunshine, with a faintly hazy, warm-toned quality suggesting expensive electricity — a subtle amber cast at the horizon. Full bright midday daylight at 11:00 CET, sun high in the south-southeast. Highly detailed oil painting in the tradition of 19th-century German Romantic landscape painters — rich colour palette, visible impasto brushwork, atmospheric depth with careful aerial perspective — yet every energy technology rendered with meticulous engineering accuracy: turbine nacelles, PV cell grid patterns, cooling tower parabolic profiles, steam thermodynamics. The scene feels like a masterwork industrial landscape painting. No text, no labels.
Grid data: 9 March 2026, 11:00 (Berlin time) · Generated 2026-03-09T12:36 UTC