Leland Olds Power Plant, North Dakota

When the Leland Olds Power Plant’s first unit went online in 1966 it was the largest lignite coal-fired power plant in the USA. Lignite coal is the lower grade coal type found in the west that now powers most of the large coal fired power plants in the USA. A second unit was added in 1975, and the plant produces around 666 megawatts. It is owned by the Basin Electric Power Cooperative, which operates the Great Plains Synfuels Plant, and the Antelope Power Plant too, as well as the Dakota Coal Company, the coal mines that supply them. Coal for this plant comes from the Freedom Mine, 30 miles west, near Beulah. There are several major power plants fed by local coal strip mines in this area, northwest of Bismarck, and south of lake Sakakawea, including the largest plant in the state. Though these plants are in an unpopulated area, they provide power for the Dakotas, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and Minnesota. Next to this facility is the Stanton Power Station, another coal plant, which opened in 1966, but was closed around 2017.