Coal-fired power station at night. Cooling towers (right) are at right of the main building (centre left) and a chimneystack (far left). More cooling towers are seen behind the main building. Coal is burnt in the power station to heat water and form steam to drive electricity-generating turbines. Smoke is cleaned and released through the chimney. The hot steam is condensed by cooling water. The heated cooling water is sprayed into the cooling towers, some escaping as the steam seen here. This is Fiddler's Ferry Power Station (dating from 1971), Cheshire, England. The eight 114-metre-tall cooling towers can each cool 8400 litres of water per second. Generating capacity (2004) is 2000 MW.