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German power hits EUR 195 on dead wind

2 min read
10:53UTC

Germany's day-ahead power cleared EUR 195.00/MWh for 30 June, a 2026 high for the date, as the year's lowest wind week collided with a summer heat surge.

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Key takeaway

Record-low week-26 wind left thermal plants to set German power at EUR 195, a 2026 high.

Germany's day-ahead power cleared EUR 195.00/MWh for 30 June delivery, a 2026 high for the date, as a summer heat surge ran straight into the year's weakest wind 1. The country logged its lowest wind generation of 2026 in week 26, the seven days to 28 June, a record rather than a passing lull 2.

Day-ahead power is the wholesale price set the afternoon before delivery, and on a high-renewable grid like Germany's it usually falls when the wind blows. Week 26 removed that cap. With wind near zero and cooling demand climbing, every incremental megawatt came from gas and coal units, whose marginal cost stacks fuel on carbon and sets the clearing price for the whole market.

With renewables gone from the stack, the clearing price tracked the thermal merit order straight up. The 17 June repricing had already driven German day-ahead 59% higher when wind briefly dropped out ; week 26 delivered the same condition in summer, with wind at a 2026 low compounding the heat load rather than relieving it. The print answers a season-long question: a EUR 195 day-ahead normally crowds injection out of the market, yet Germany kept filling storage through it, because at today's prompt gas the caverns and the turbines can both be served.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Germany gets a large share of its electricity from wind turbines. When the wind blows strongly, electricity is cheap because wind power has no fuel cost. But in the week ending 28 June 2026, German wind output fell to its lowest of the year. At the same time, a summer heat wave raised demand for air conditioning. With wind absent and demand high, Germany had to rely on gas-fired power plants to generate most of its electricity. Gas plants have fuel costs: they burn gas (at EUR 40-44 per megawatt-hour) and must buy EU carbon pollution permits (at EUR 80 per tonne). Those costs add up to about EUR 120-130 per megawatt-hour just to generate. Since Germany had no cheap alternatives, the market clearing price jumped to EUR 195 per megawatt-hour, meaning electricity buyers paid EUR 195 for every megawatt-hour they used that day. Germany completed its nuclear phase-out in April 2023, removing the main low-cost backup that would previously have capped the price during wind droughts.

Deep Analysis
Root Causes

Germany's April 2023 nuclear phase-out removed approximately 12 GW of price-suppressing zero-carbon baseload that had previously anchored the merit order during wind droughts: Isar 2, Emsland, and Neckarwestheim 2 collectively represented roughly EUR 20-30/MWh of price headroom at typical demand levels, headroom that no longer exists.

The Gesetz zur Reduzierung und zur Beendigung der Kohleverstromung (coal phase-out law) reduced lignite and hard coal online capacity in the Rhineland and Lusatia regions progressively from 2020 onward, removing the secondary dispatchable layer that had historically capped CCGT dominance during wind droughts. By June 2026, the combined effect of both phase-outs left CCGT as the effective price-setting unit in the German merit order whenever wind falls below 30-35% of installed capacity.

Week 26 of 2026 delivered the lowest wind output of the year coincident with a summer heat surge that raised cooling demand. Those two conditions simultaneously removed the renewable supply cap from the merit order and raised load. At EUR 40-44 TTF and EUR 80 EU Allowances (EUA), the CCGT marginal cost ran approximately EUR 120-130/MWh, leaving a EUR 65-75/MWh rent for operators but confirming that the only bidders at the margin were gas-fired.

What could happen next?
  • Risk

    Without the StromVKG capacity market delivering contracted dispatchable capacity before 2028-2030, Germany faces repeated EUR 150-200/MWh day-ahead prints during any extended wind drought, because CCGT remains the only available dispatchable option at the margin.

  • Consequence

    The EUR 195 print, occurring simultaneously with EUR 40-44 gas, confirms that high German power prices in 2026 are driven by dispatchable capacity absence rather than high fuel costs: the same merit order produces EUR 195 clearing even when gas is cheap.

Sources:Montel News·euenergy.live
Mentions:Germany →CCGT →EPEX SPOT →France →Denmark →Austria →Bundesnetzagentur →Bundestag →StromVKG →
First Reported In

Update #22 · Germany refills as the autumn cliff nears

Montel News· 30 Jun 2026
Read original →
Causes and effects
Caused by
German spark spread flips +EUR 15
The power market repricing trend that drove Germany's day-ahead 59% higher on 17 June extended further to EUR 195/MWh on 30 June when week-26 wind generation fell to a 2026 low, removing the renewable cap on the merit order.
Occurred 16 Jun 2026
Read story →
This Event
German power hits EUR 195 on dead wind
With wind at a 2026 low and renewables off the stack, gas and coal units alone set German power at a year-high clearing price.
Led to
Same wind, two prices: solar sets gap
The 30 June EUR 195 print on the year's lowest-wind week is the prior instance of the high-price-on-low-wind pattern; this event refines it by isolating post-solar residual load, not wind alone, as the driver.
Occurred 31 Jul 2026
Read story →
Different Perspectives
Cross-border power traders
Cross-border power traders
The France-Germany day-ahead spread flipped from a EUR 17.20 German premium on 1 August to a EUR 4.15 French premium on 3 August, the same day French curtailment peaked. They cannot yet attribute the flip to curtailment alone, since a like-for-like overnight comparison shows French nuclear output rising while wind fell and demand returned on the weekday step.
EDF
EDF
River-cooling limits took 7.6 GW, 12 per cent of its fleet, offline on 3 August, the highest curtailment since the heatwave began, with an easing forecast to 4.3 GW on 4 August and 3 GW after. It manages the cut as a recurring seasonal constraint, expecting it to lift with river temperature, not repair.
Gasunie
Gasunie
TTF, the Dutch hub it operates, drifted to roughly EUR 55 to 58 per MWh across the window, staying inside its recent range through both the German spark reversal and the French curtailment. It reads a flat hub price as evidence that neither event this window carried enough weight to move the fuel leg on its own.
German gas-fired generators
German gas-fired generators
Record German solar of 18,761 MW on 2 August pushed the clean spark spread to minus 18.48 EUR/MWh, a loss-making day, before it returned to plus 16.20 on 3 August. They now price dispatch against post-solar residual load rather than wind alone, since the sign flipped inside 48 hours on unchanged fuel and carbon costs.
European Commission (DG Energy)
European Commission (DG Energy)
Its implementing-measures register logged transposition notices from only Portugal and Slovakia against Wednesday's Article 94 deadline for Directive (EU) 2024/1788, with 25 states silent. It expects the register to fill only gradually, since filing routinely lags legislating and any infringement track against non-notifying states runs on a slower clock than the deadline itself.
Spain's LNG terminal operators
Spain's LNG terminal operators
Spain's 9,145 GWh terminal inventory is the largest single stock in the EU LNG network, an option value that can reroute cargoes wherever the winter strip pays best rather than a cavern gas obligation tied to a fixed date. That flexibility matters more as Germany's cavern shortfall pushes more of the winter security question onto import infrastructure.