Energy experts claim that higher interest in energy leads to its more efficient consumption. So to urge our society to learn more about energy, the staff of the Energy and Technology Museum have created a unique interactive educational space, the purpose of which is to bring the public and the world of energy closer together. According to experts, a closer connection between people and energy and the transformation of the latter can create a breakthrough that leads to saving money, making occupations in the energy sector more popular and protecting our environment.
Explore energy in an interactive way
Currently, the 1000-square-meter Transformation Hall in the Energy and Technology Museum (opened recently) is the only place in the country where the public can get to know the world of energy. The purpose of this interactive exposition is to tell the story about the relationship between the human kind and energy. The exposition (which, in the technological sense, is the most groundbreaking in all three Baltic states), its architecture, design and objects have been created solely by Lithuanians. The hall is divided into four parts, each of them dedicated to different themes, i.e. energy production, accumulation, transmission and consumption.
In the centre of the Transformation Hall, stands a Faraday cage with two largest Tesla coils in the Baltic countries inside. Having walked a bit to the side, the visitors can also see the foundations of the historical chimney of the first public power plan.
The Energy and Technology Museum has partnered up with #EnergySmartSTART programme, initiated by Ignitis Group and other energy companies.
The programme is meant for pupils, students and anybody who is interested in the topic of energy and wants to become energy-smart. “Even today, exact sciences have a bad rap for being too complicated. When, in fact, they simply explain the world around us. Nuclear physics can be seen through the lens of solar reactions. Such invisible and sometimes inconceivable processes as wireless power transfer can be explained by showing some Tesla coils,” Žilvinas Mikulėnas, a chief guide at the museum, assertively states.
Why are these things important to know? “If we want our smartphones to become even smarter in the future, we must always start from science. The main purpose of creating the Transformation Hall was to inspire people to explore inventions and technologies. Senior students have been given a space to prepare for their exams in, teachers have been provided with possibilities to teach their subjects in an understandable, engaging and interesting manner. All of these efforts to improve the reputation of the exact sciences will, hopefully, result in the new generation of Lithuanian scientists,” the guide says expectantly.
Superficial knowledge, but plenty of potential
“People know the basic things, i.e. that there is such a thing as renewable energy, maybe something else. However, if you ask them about the specific benefits of consuming energy sustainably, the answers do not come easily at all. So teaching the public about the advantages of sustainable energy consumption and how heat and power must be saved at all costs, should be our main goal,” Juozas Bielskus, a lecturer at Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (Vilnius TECH), explains.
According to Bielskus, promotion of sustainable energy requires changing people’s mentality and convincing them that going green benefits us all. Every person has to come to an understanding that we can’t continue polluting the environment and that we must reduce greenhouse emissions and consume energy in a more efficient way. There is hope, he says, as the interest in similar topics has been growing in the recent years.
The most interested ones are typically pupils and their teachers. “I am often invited to various schools to give presentations on renewable resources and efficient energy consumption. The easiest way to pique the interest of young people is to enable them to learn something in an interactive manner. It’s only natural, as these methods always make understanding new things more pleasant. Due to this, I truly believe that our new Transformation Hall will be a hit that teaches people about energy in a fun way and inspires them to dig deeper,” J. Bielskus claims. Deeper knowledge leads to more efficient consumption As J. Bielskus jokingly says, all of us sometimes play the part of energy experts, consumed by the topic of the ever-changing electricity prices. However, the specialist highly recommends learning much more about the energy itself, as such knowledge oftentimes leads to fuller pockets.
“An interest in energy results in better environmental protection. In addition, it enables us to save energy by using it in a sustainable way. That way, we are also leaving some of it for the future generations. Such behaviour imperceptibly makes us an important part of the energy chain. For instance, when old incandescent light bulbs (above 60 watts) were taken off the Lithuanian market, it created a lot of dissatisfaction among the general public. But people just needed to get used to the fact, and now the question which option is better – the efficient or the extremely inefficient one – is no longer relevant. By replacing their old bulbs with new ones that reduce the amount of electricity needed for lighting, people have decreased the need for fuel in power plants. So, to keep the long story short, the starting point is always the consumer, whether we talk about reduced fuel needs or environment protection. We’re all a part of this,” says J. Bielskus.
According to him, people do understand that energy is everywhere around them – they have central heating in their homes, use tea kettles, fridges, microwaves and other electrical devices. Unfortunately, only some of them stop to think where that electricity is coming from and why we should be saving it to have a better and more sustainable future.
The construction of the Transformation Hall lasted from 2018 to 2022, and, during that period, the topic of energy became even more relevant. “By closely observing the current geopolitical situation, we try to satisfy the general public’s need to learn more about the different types of renewable energy, their advantages, challenges and necessity. Another thing that we’ve noticed is that the results of the school-leaving mathematics exam have been steadily deteriorating, and less and less young people opt for studying engineering, energy or exact sciences at universities,” Ž. Mikulėnas observes. “Having come to our Transformation Hall, visitors are able to try out the interactive objects there, transform the energy they consumed during breakfast into some other type of energy, generate positive electric charge on their skin and hair, play with electromagnets or lightning. All of this helps them understand that science is interesting, arouses their curiosity, broadens horizons and deepens their knowledge about the world we all live in.”
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