Building With California
Expansion of 3 Plants To Add 1332.500 KW
CONTRA COSTA POWER PLANT near Antioch (above) will become the second largest PG&E generating plant when an expansion program now under way is completed within two years. Units 6 and 7, each with a capacity of 330,000 kilowatts, will more than double the existing capacity and raise the plant's capacity to 1,270,000 kilowatts. This will be sufficient to serve three cities the size of San  Francisco.
CAPACITY OF THE MORRO BAY power plant (below) will be tripled as the result of an expansion program now being completed. Unit No. 3 with a capacity of 330,000 kilowatts is now in test operation and Unit No. 4, also 330,000 kilowatts, will be completed next July. At that time the plant's capacity will be 990,000 kilowatts, making it one of the largest steam-electric generating plants in the United States. When built in 1955, it was the first industrial plant in the United States to convert sea water into fresh water on a large scale.
A SECOND UNIT of 12,500 kilowatts is being added to the Geysers Power Plant in Sonoma County. It will be in operation by next June, less than three years after the plant was first opened. Parallel pipes in foreground carry steam to the plant from underground wells more than 1,400 feet away. Vapor may be seen rising from cooling tower of first unit. A similar structure will be built on concrete platform in right foreground. Frame construction in center foreground is power building for second unit. Geysers are one of four sources of energy used by PG&E to generate electricity—hydro, fossil fuels (gas & oil), geo- thermal steam and nuclear.
DECEMBER, 1962