CRYSTAL RIVER, Fla. — Two Duke Energy coal power houses that helped to provide electricity for at least a million customers statewide are now just part of the ash heap of history.
Quite literally.
Crews detonated 500 explosives Saturday morning to take down the structures that had contained boilers, steam turbine generators and more at the company's Crystal River coal plant.
They spanned some 200-feet tall and 125-feet wide and, since the 1960s, helped provide electricity for 1.8 million customers, the utility said.
All of the concrete, plus metals like steel and copper, will be recycled. Later this year, the company has plans to implode the remaining two, 500-foot tall stacks.
Duke Energy says the plant was retired in 2018 when its Citrus Combined Cycle Station, a natural gas plant, went online. The company's coal plants are being replaced with cleaner natural gas and other renewable-souced plants.
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