Energy is a prerequisite for everything we do. Without access to large amounts of energy, our modern way of life would be impossible. We take it for granted that we can switch on the light, charge our mobile phone or take a hot shower at any time.

We only realize how dependent we are on energy when the power goes out. Today's high-energy society has a short history, however. For thousands of years, people secured their energy supply by burning wood, peat or other biomass. The muscle power of people and animals determined how much work could be done. About 250 years ago, towards the end of the 18th century, development took a new direction. The steam engine made it possible to convert the energy in coal into mechanical work, and gave the impetus to an energy revolution. Within a few generations, fossil energy sources, first coal, later oil and natural gas, have contributed to the amount of energy available to society multiplying. The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology will create a new exhibition that places Norway in this picture. The exhibition will show how access to energy, and the technology needed to utilize it, have fundamentally transformed society. By combining the traditional museum exhibition's focus on objects with the science center's interactive installations and pedagogy, we hope to give the audience a deeper understanding of what energy is in the field of tension between cultural history, technology and natural science.

Ensuring access to energy is part of a common human endeavour. From our ancestors in primeval times learning to master fire, to today's experiments with superconductors, fission and fusion technology, man has tried to gain control over his environment. Science and technology have enabled an unparalleled development of prosperity, but at the same time contributed to tremendous pressure on the earth's resources. In our longing for control over nature, we are about to lose control. The ancient hero Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to humans. For having transgressed against the current world order, he was brutally punished. This, and numerous other myths, teach us that hubris, greed and unbridled curiosity have consequences. In the age that some have dubbed the Anthropocene, this insight is perhaps more important than ever.

The general energy supply in this country was established based on hydropower-based electricity. Norwegian engineers tamed the waterfalls, built giant power plants and constructed some of the world's most efficient turbines. Norway also got an electrotechnical supplier industry early on. For Norwegians, electricity has become synonymous with renewable hydropower. Nevertheless, our energy story is about much more than this. The exhibition aims to show how renewable and fossil energy sources, with their various technical solutions and infrastructures, have existed side by side, overlapped and supplemented each other. In the latter half of the 19th century, for example, there were several parallel systems for artificial light. With coal gas as an energy carrier, the gasworks built a separate infrastructure for street lighting in the cities. Private households were also connected to the systems. At the beginning of the 20th century, electric incandescent lamps increasingly took over the market for lighting, but right up until the 1950s, gas retained a strong position in heating and cooking in private homes. Coal-fired steam engines were also more durable than we like to imagine. Although they lost ground as a central power source in factories, and from the end of the 19th century were replaced by more flexible electric motors, steam engines defended their position in transport. Because coal - which is not only an energy source, but also an energy carrier - can be easily moved, steam engines were installed on board ships and on railways. On ships, steam had a relatively short career, after new internal combustion engines made their way. On the railway, however, it was different. Some lines were electrified early on, but in Norway steam-powered locomotives were in operation right up until 1970.

The modern high-energy society that has emerged over the past two hundred years has shaped economics and working life in a fundamental way.
Illuminated factories made it possible to keep work going after dark. The light raised productivity and increased profits. In the exhibition, we also explore how energy use affects social and cultural life. What did it mean for the spread of the art of reading that people did not have to close the book when daylight disappeared? A wealth of artefacts, together with original photographs, will show how new energy cultures changed society. The electric incandescent lamps shaded the urban space in other ways than the gas lanterns or the older oil lamps. Electrification was most pervasive in the cities. The residents of Kristiania had their senses stimulated by illuminated advertisements and floodlit facades. The warehouses' electric escalators and lifts organized the flow of goods and people in new ways. Trolleybuses, electric trams and subways opened up a new urban mobility and gave life a new rhythm and pulse. The inauguration of the Holmenkoll Railway in 1898 brought the capital's citizens into contact with their rural surroundings. A Sunday walk in untouched nature now became a possible break in the hectic city life. In Norway and abroad, many people claimed that electrification damaged the human nervous system. The tormented, hallucinating main character in Hamsun's Hunger sees psalm verses written in electric script in the sky.

Norwegian energy history belongs to a larger, international context. The exhibition focuses on how the Norwegian energy supply system after the Second World War has been integrated into first a Scandinavian and then a European energy market. Integration into these markets began with the export of hydropower, but after Norway became an oil and gas producing nation in the 1970s, fossil energy exports have become increasingly important. Norway is today a major supplier of oil and gas to the EU. Because The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology already has a separate oil exhibition, the new energy exhibition will not specifically address this sector. Norwegian oil and gas is nevertheless a suitable introduction to today's energy crisis, which will be given a central place in the exhibition. Science, led by the UN Climate Panel, has long established that the burning of coal, oil and gas is the main cause of the accumulation of the greenhouse gas CO2 in the atmosphere. Few today doubt that emissions represent a fundamental challenge for humanity, if they continue at today's high levels. The exhibition will approach the climate crisis, among other things, by addressing the technologies that are central to the so-called green shift. In the Norwegian context, the focus is on wind and solar energy, as well as the production of hydrogen. The exhibition also aims to discuss ongoing projects for carbon capture and storage, and also battery production. In addition, a section on nuclear power is planned. Based on the Norwegian focus on nuclear power in the years after the Second World War, with the construction of two fission reactors (which are represented in the museum's collection), the line is drawn forward to the debate about the role of nuclear power in a new "decarbonized" energy system. One entry point here could be to address the contributions of Norwegian actors in ongoing research and development projects within fusion technology.

The exhibition cultivates a perspective that is both historical and contemporary.
And it will challenge the audience to reflect on how energy issues will affect society in the future. In the "oracle temple" which is planned for the last part of the exhibition, visitors will be able to see images that briefly hint at what the world might look like in 100 or 200 years. In the time that has passed since James Watt constructed his steam engine, the world has experienced an increased access to energy that makes it possible to build global transport systems and megacities, as well as to feed a population of close to eight billion people. What was once in the dark is now bathed in light. But the starry sky has faded.

Photo: Norsk Teknisk Museum