Power station cooling towers. View, from the top of one of the chimneys, of clouds of steam rising from cooling towers at a coal-fired power station. The turbine hall is at lower left. The cooling towers are used to cool hot water which expands into steam, carrying away excess heat. This is the Drax power station near Selby, North Yorkshire, UK. This view looks south from the main chimney. At 259 metres, it is one of the tallest structures in the UK. As of 2006, Drax is the largest, cleanest and most efficient of the UK's coal-fired power stations. It can burn 36,000 tones of coal a day to produce 4,000 megawatts of power, around 7% of the UK's electricity needs. It was built from 1974-1986. For a view of the chimney, see T190/454.