This post did not transfer during my 2018 blog migration. Original post and comments are here.
When I told a friend I was moving close to the Pleasant Prairie Power Plant, he said “That’s where my kids think clouds come from.”
How cute! I can totally see that:
Sometimes you can’t tell where the factory starts and the clouds begin!
I’ve been affectionately calling it the “cloud factory” since, and told my parents about it when they helped us move. They thought the story was adorable. Now I send them text updates on cloud production status:
Ha ha.
But since I’m an adult and have to live in reality (booooo) I decided to actually look up what is being burned there, to create all that steam.
Coal! And lots of it! 13,000 tons a day (according to a potentially outdated wikipedia page)! Maybe that’s what’s on all those trains.
I was curious, so I got a few more stats from the Wisconsin Energy Corporation’s (WEC) 2014 (the most recent available on their site) Corporate Responsibility Report:
- The plant generated 6,231 GWh of electricity in 2014 (the Oak Creek Site generated 11,148!).
- The plant emitted 7,120 1,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions (CO2) in 2014.
- A chilled ammonia pilot project is (was?) used to reduce CO2 emissions as it escapes the flue gas (this pilot began in 2008… I think it’s still going on?).
- I’ll just have to quote this one: “Pleasant Prairie Power Plant (PPPP) and Oak Creek Power Plant (OCPP) units 5-8 have been retrofitted with selective catalytic reduction systems for NOx emissions removal and wet flue-gas desulfurization units (scrubbers) for SO2 emissions removal. These projects, along with additional measures taken at other facilities, have resulted in more than an 80 percent reduction in SO2 and NOx emissions combined when compared to 2000 emissions.”
- Now it gets interesting! Falcons were living at their power plants, so in 1991, they released “15 captive-bred peregrine falcon chicks in support of the Wisconsin Peregrine Falcon Recovery program” at the Pleasant Prairie location. Since then, they’ve installed nesting boxes on power plant chimneys (I am interpreting this to mean across multiple locations), and 200 falcons (20% of the population in Wisconsin) have been born at them!
- WEC provides its combustion products, including from the Pleasant Prairie landfill location, for use in building materials and used 102% of its systemwide products in 2014. They’re also re-burning combustion products at the Pleasant Prairie location (meaning less coal needs to be purchased).
Don’t worry – this isn’t some sneaky sponsored post – I am just interested in learning what is going on where I live, and like sharing what I learn, here!
And the other good thing about the plant? I see it every time I leave my house for a run and it lets me know how challenging the wind will be that day. If the steam is going out horizontal from the chimney? That’s a bad sign. I want to see this (straight up!):
Ha!
This post did not transfer during my 2018 blog migration. Original post and comments are here.
