Chimneys have long been a defining feature of industrial skylines, serving the crucial purpose of dispersing exhaust gases high into the atmosphere to reduce pollution at ground level. For more than a century, coal and oil-fired power plants relied on towering smokestacks as a core part of their design, with engineers pushing them higher and higher to improve efficiency and air quality in surrounding cities.
Today, however, these monumental structures are increasingly relics of the past. With many countries shifting away from coal and other heavy fuels, the age of building record-breaking chimneys has effectively come to an end. It’s very likely that the current tallest chimneys in the world will remain unmatched, since new power plants now favour lower-emission technologies that don’t require such colossal stacks.
The information available on these chimneys is surprisingly limited. For this article, I’ve relied heavily on Wikipedia and other open sources to compile a snapshot of the five tallest ever built. Each entry includes the country, city, commissioning date, the power plant or facility it serves, its coordinates, and some interesting facts, along with photographs. These five stand as both feats of engineering and symbols of an industrial era that is rapidly fading.
1. Chimney of Ekibastuz GRES-2 Power Station – 419.7m / 1,377 ft
- Country: Kazakhstan
- City: Ekibastuz
- Commission Date: 1987
- Use: Coal-fueled power-generating station
- Coordinates: 52°1′26.3″N 75°28′34.5″E
Fun Facts:
- Tallest chimney in the world
- Roughly 75% of the energy generated by GRES-2 is exported to Russia
- 50% of GRES-2 is owned by Kazakhstan’s government
Druschba 4, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
2. Inco Superstack – 380.1 m / 1,250 ft
- Country: Canada
- City: Sudbury, Ontario
- Commission Date: 1972
- Use: Nickel Smelting
- Coordinates: 46°28′48.23″N 81°3′23.43″W
Fun Facts:
- Second-tallest freestanding structure in Canada behind the CN Tower
- Located at the largest Nickel smelting operation in the world at Vale’s Copper Cliff facility
- Scheduled for demolition in 2029
P199, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
3. Original Unit 3 chimney of Homer City Generating Station – 371 m / 1,217 ft
- Country: United States
- City: Homer City, Pennsylvania
- Commission Date: 1977 (Demolished in March 2025)
- Use: Coal-fueled power-generating station
- Coordinates: 40°30′39″N 79°11′37″W
Fun Facts:
- Slightly shorter than the Empire State Building by roughly 10 m / 30 ft
- The plant was ranked the #2 polluter in the State of Pennsylvania
- The chimney along with the entire power plant was decomissioned in 2023 and later demolished in 2025
Designism, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons and użytkownik angielskiej wiki Hepcat748, CC BY-SA 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/, via Wikimedia Commons
4. Kennecott Smokestack – 370.4 m / 1,215 ft
- Country: United States
- City: Magna, Utah
- Commission Date: 1974
- Use: Copper Smelting
- Coordinates: 40.72138° N, 112.19869° W
Fun Facts:
- Tallest freestanding structure West of the Mississippi River
- 54 m / 177 ft diameter at the bottom and 12m / 40 ft diameter at the top
- Only operating smelter chimney left in Utah
An Errant Knight, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons and John beta, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
5. Chimney of Berezovskaya GRES – 370 m / 1,214 ft
- Country: Russia
- City: Sharypovo
- Commission Date: 1985
- Use: Coal-fueled power-generating station
- Coordinates: 55°34′46″N 89°04′21″E
Fun Facts:
- Tallest freestanding structure in Russia besides Moscow and St Petersburg
- Constructed one year prior to the infamous Chernobyl disaster in 1986
Tim18, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons