Skywatch Friday: All Steamed Up

Steam from the Encogen Generating Station's cooling towers rises into the evening sky.

I've driven by this facility many times, but never had any idea what it actually does until I looked it up for this post (Only the technically curious need read beyond this point):

From their website: "The Encogen facility came online in 1993, and was acquired by PSE in 1999. The plant employs modern, “combustion-turbine, combined-cycle” technology that allows it to generate electricity using both a natural gas cycle and, from the exhaust heat of its power-generating turbines, a steam cycle. The two-stage process boosts operating efficiency, lowers fuel costs, and cuts air emissions. Combined-cycle plants like Encogen operate much more efficiently than single-cycle gas-fired plants. The latter typically run only to help meet daily or seasonal peaks in customers’ power usage, while combined-cycle plants often operate to help meet utility customers’ base power requirements."

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