A new gallery examining the rapid energy transition and decarbonisation needed globally to limit climate change has opened at the Science Museum in London.
Energy Revolution: The Adani Green Energy Gallery features historic and contemporary objects and engaging digital exhibits that highlight how society can journey towards a low carbon world.
The free gallery shows how the world can generate and use energy more sustainably, highlighting technologies and projects from the UK and abroad, from hydrogen power on Orkney to terracotta air-cooling facades in India and solar farms in Morocco.
The free gallery examines this century’s defining challenge through the lens of imagination across three sections.
In Future Planet, visitors can examine how climate scientists use mathematics and complex computer-based models to understand our planet, and what these tell us about the range of climate futures that might lie ahead.
In Future Energy, technologies – and the people behind them – that are reimagining how energy is supplied and used today are highlighted alongside historic artefacts which provide a longer view of the energy transition away from fossil fuels.
Our Future looks forward to a new world that is being dreamt up, with children’s creative ideas of how the world will meet its future energy needs displayed with expert responses to them.
Every hour the Sun sends more energy to Earth than we use in a year.
Yet to use this solar energy, it must be captured and distributed to where it’s needed.
The objects on display reveal the sheer variety possible with solar power, from a model of a solar-powered classroom which supports schoolchildren and local communities in India and Uganda to the towering five metre tall parabolic solar trough mirrors used on huge solar farms to concentrate sunlight and generate electricity, and a model of the Xlinks ship built to lay a 4000 km long cable to supply the UK with electricity from Moroccan solar and wind farms.
An interactive game designed for the gallery invites visitors to solve challenges at solar installations across the world.
The Scottish islands of Orkney are playing an important role in the energy transition, with abundant wind and tidal energy being harnessed to develop an innovative hydrogen economy.
Visitors can see a model of hydrogen and renewable energy projects on the islands, from floating offshore wind and tidal turbines to the world’s first large-scale green hydrogen plant and watch a film featuring the people and places behind these pioneering projects.
On display for the first time is a seven metre long tidal turbine blade made by Orbital Marine Power.