Exhibition exploring the story of energy in the North East, from the Industrial Revolution to green technologies, featuring local heritage and interactive displays.
Steam to Green is on at the Discovery Museum in Blandford Square, and it's a big one for anyone interested in how this part of the world actually powered itself. It's a collaboration between Newcastle University and 18 North East green tech companies, and it tracks about 150 years of energy innovation in the region, from Victorian coal and steam right through to today's wind turbines and electric vehicles.
It pulls a lot from local heritage, so you'll see museum treasures like the steam-turbine ship Turbinia and the world's first commercial lightbulb, both Tyneside inventions, alongside a cross-section of an underwater sea cable and the waterwheel built by industrialist William Armstrong. There's a chimney-type windmill built by John Smeaton in 1782 too, the first mill to have five sails.
Interactive bits run throughout, which is the part that'll probably hold you up. There's a sensory station on fossil fuels, a cutaway of an electric Nissan LEAF, and a display that lets you send a hydrogen ball skywards by generating the electricity that splits water into hydrogen and oxygen. It also features stories from 17 households living with green energy, and the whole thing is aimed at inspiring young people to tackle climate change and look at careers in green science and engineering.
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It's free to enter, and you don't need tickets for the exhibition, though the museum welcomes donations. The Discovery Museum is on Blandford Square in Newcastle upon Tyne.
