Romania. Iași County. Iași. Old industrial site's ruins dating from communism time. The factory used to be a beer factory. It is now deserted and will be soon be demolished by real estate speculators to build new shopping centers and malls. In the background, the thermal power stationis is running with only half of its full capacity. A thermal power station is a power plant in which the prime mover is steam driven. Water is heated, turns into steam and spins a steam turbine which drives an electrical generator. After it passes through the turbine, the steam is condensed in a condenser and recycled to where it was heated; this is known as a Rankine cycle. The greatest variation in the design of thermal power stations is due to the different fossil fuel resources generally used to heat the water. Some prefer to use the term energy center because such facilities convert forms of heat energy into electrical energy. Certain thermal power plants also are designed to produce heat energy for industrial purposes. Globally, fossil fueled thermal power plants produce a large part of man-made CO2 emissions to the atmosphere. Iași (also referred to as Iasi, Jassy or Iassy) is the largest city in eastern Romania and the seat of Iași County. Located in the Moldavia region, Iași has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Romanian social life. The city was the capital of the Principality of Moldavia from 1564 to 1859, then of the United Principalities from 1859 to 1862, and the capital of Romania from 1916 to 1918. 11.06.15© 2015 Didier Ruef