Explosives topple former coal-fired power plant in Minnesota

GRANITE FALLS, Minn. (AP) — A decommissioned coal-fired power plant in western Minnesota has crashed to the ground with a thunderous boom as part of a planned implosion that marks the end of an era in Granite Falls. Minnesota Public Radio News reports that Xcel Energy used explosives to implode the Minnesota Valley Generating Station on Thursday, as onlookers watched from a distance. Video of the implosion shows a flash of bright orange light and a loud crack at plant’s base, before two towering smokestacks topple to the ground. The coal-fired Xcel Energy plant dated back to the 1930s and closed in 2009 amid the ongoing shift to cleaner energy sources.