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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