02What's flowing through the wires?
What generates the electricity, hour by hour
Which fuels generate the electricity in each hour, and how does that differ from one country to the next?
Behind every price is a physical mix of fuels. Averaged over the 12 months to 14 October 2026, Germany's largest sources of power were onshore wind 13.1 GW, solar 9.7 GW, lignite 7.6 GW.
Reading the mix
In every hour the power in the wires comes from a blend of plants: wind turbines, solar panels, gas and coal plants, nuclear reactors, hydro dams and biomass. The chart stacks them, so the height of the whole stack is the power generated and each band is one fuel's contribution. Some sources follow the weather and others follow the price, which is why the blend changes from hour to hour.
Wind and solar are used first whenever they are available, because their fuel costs nothing. Nuclear plants are costly to turn up and down, so they usually run steadily: France's nuclear output changes little across an average day, although its reactors do turn down at night and on sunny middays. Gas plants start quickly and fill whatever wind and solar leave uncovered. In Germany their output peaks in the evening and dips at midday.
The mix sets each hour's carbon intensity, the grams of CO₂ each kilowatt-hour carries, shown by the brown line. It also shapes the price. The more of an hour that wind and solar cover, the less is left for gas plants, and the cheaper the hour tends to be. The demand left after wind and solar is on Residual Load, and zone-by-zone carbon on Carbon Intensity.
The chart counts generation inside each bidding zone, the area that shares one wholesale price, so power imported from a neighbour appears in the neighbour's mix. Gaps in the source's reporting show as breaks in the bands.
Questions
Where does Germany's electricity come from?
Averaged over the 12 months to 14 October 2026, Germany's largest sources of power were onshore wind 13.1 GW, solar 9.7 GW, lignite 7.6 GW, according to ENTSO-E generation data. The mix moves with the weather and the time of day: solar output peaks at midday, wind follows the weather, and other plants cover what wind and solar leave.
What does the generation mix show?
Which fuels are generating each hour, and how much power each one supplies. Over the 12 months to 14 October 2026, the three largest sources in Germany were onshore wind, solar and lignite; the chart shows how their shares change through the day and the year, with any gaps in the source data left as gaps.
How these numbers are made: Production-based carbon intensity, The generation mix.
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