A glimpse of South Africa's coal dependency: Lethabo Power Station. @Eskom_SA generates most of the nation's electricity from 15 coal-burning plants. Here's a tour of one... 
Lethabo at 36 years old is among Eskom's newer stations with 6×618-megawatt units. Located almost 60 miles south of Johannesburg. It's currently the utility's best-performing coal plant of a long-neglected fleet prone to breakdowns
Coal supply comes from Seriti's New Vaal mine just down the road. Lethabo needs a lot, burning 16 million tons a year and as much as 50,000 TONS A DAY.
Conveyor belts shuttle the fossil fuel to the station. As more coal is mined, these belts can stretch over a mile to some plants. Then it's pulverized.
That's injected into boilers over 27 stories high. The coal is burned to heat water into steam. The furnace gets up to 1,450 degrees Celsius
The steam turns a turbine at 3,000 rpm. That powers a generator that produces electricity
That's sent out into the transmission network. This wood-paneled control room plays a part
Not pictured: Emissions that Eskom leads the nation in producing. Also massive mountains of ash that result from burning the coal
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