Sherburne County Generating Station

The Sherburne County Generating Station, also known as Sherco, is a large coal-fired power plant on the banks of the Mississippi River in Becker, Minnesota, which is in Sherburne County. Its two active units have a combined capacity of 1,704 megawatts, making it the largest power plant in the state. In comparison, the single-unit Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant located less than four miles away has an output of 671 MW. The state's other nuclear power plant, the 2-unit Prairie Island facility, is rated at 1,096 MW. The station uses 20,000 to 30,000 tons of coal per day. The BNSF Railway delivers up to three 115-car trains per day from mines in the Powder River Basin. In addition to generating electricity, some steam is also sent from the plant to a nearby paper plant, Liberty Paper Incorporated. The power plant has a normal staff of about 350 people, but up to 800 more employees are on site when the generating units are shut down and undergoing maintenance. The city borders of Becker extend around the plant, making the town heavily dependent on the plant for property tax revenue. The plant's annual $4 million property tax bill covers about 75% of the total for the city of about 4,600 people. The plant was initially constructed by Northern States Power Company (NSP), now a subsidiary of Xcel Energy. Units 1 and 2, which each have a capacity of 680 MW, came online in 1976

Power station data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).