The NW Council has mashed-up with Google to provide a map of where our power is generated.
Each pushpin in the map is a power plant in our region. There’s a good deal of hydro, but quite a smattering of other generation sources, especially natural gas. It’s very easy to see in this map that power generation follows population centers pretty closely. It goes to show that even utilities know the benefit of having generation close to the consumer.
This is the part where I point out that you can generate your own power on your own roof with your very own solar panels.