Former coal-fired power plant toppled in Minnesota

A decommissioned coal-fired power plant in western Minnesota crashed to the ground with a thunderous boom Thursday morning as part of a planned implosion that marks the end of an era in Granite Falls. Xcel Energy - the utility company that owns the Minnesota Valley Generating Station - used explosives to implode the nearly century-old structure as onlookers watched from a distance.
The coal-fired plant dated back to the 1930s and closed in 2009 amid the ongoing shift to cleaner energy sources. Built by Northern States Power, the plant had employed people in the town for generations. High school teams in the area were even known as the Kilowatts, in a nod to the landmark.
The area will still host an operating electrical substation and transmission lines, but the plant site will likely be seeded with prairie grass and restored with vegetation. Similar demolitions also happened in Florida, Arizona and Illinois.