Energy Engines: 22 Key Facts About How Power Plants Work

A commando unit of 12 men sabotaged a heavy water plant (Rjukan plant) in Norway in World War 2, crippling Nazi attempts at developing an atomic bomb.

Former dictator of Equatorial Guinea Francisco Macias Nguema banned the use of lubricants in Malabo city power plant, saying he could run it using magic. The plant exploded.

A coal power plant with a 40% efficiency takes an estimated 325 kg (717 lb) of coal to power a 100 W lightbulb for one year.

Nuclear power plants in the US are so strong that they can be struck by a large commercial airliner and still not release harmful radiation.

The largest and most powerful power plant on Earth is the Three Gorges Dam in China. The controversial project which produces power for over 60 million people, caused multiple landslides, and even slowed down the Earth's rotation a fraction of a second.

Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant in Arizona which is spread over 4000 square acres employs 2055 workers, generates 35% of the electricity needed in Arizona, and is the only nuclear power plant in the world that is not built next to a body of water.

California generates so much solar power that at times the state will pay Arizona to take it.

The world's first nuclear power plant (Obninsk Nuclear Power Plant), built by the USSR in 1951, wasn't decommissioned until 2002.

Tesla runs an entire island on solar power. The island of Ta'u in American Samoa used to consume 300 gallons of diesel fuel daily to run generators, the fuel that had to be bought and shipped, but Tesla's solar panels and power packs provide 6 megawatt-hours of energy storage.

In 2007, two teams of armed intruders stormed their way into a nuclear plant (Pelindaba) used to store weapons-grade uranium from South Africa's decommissioned arsenal. The coordinated assault was thwarted by an off-duty firefighter, a plant employee, and their dog.