Michelle Hynd is Director of Corporate Infrastructure and Development at SSE so we asked her to tell us why SSE has decided to back the latest Glasgow Science Centre exhibition – ‘Powering the Future’
As an energy company SSE provides an essential service. We believe that places a responsibility on us to engage openly and honestly with people to help them understand what we do – how we generate power and, ultimately, how it arrives at homes and workplaces around the country.
That’s the reason we recently allowed SSE to be the subject of a three part BBC Four documentary series, Power to the People. We realised this was a great opportunity to showcase the real SSE and the wider energy industry because people rarely get to see the army of people that work behind the scenes and the effort needed to keep the lights on.
It is also why we are supporting the Powering the Future exhibition, which opened last week at the Glasgow Science Centre. It is the first exhibition of its kind in Scotland and aims to generate public awareness of the energy challenges we face.
By working with energy providers like SSE, and other partners such as policy makers and government agencies, the Glasgow Science Centre has brought together some fascinating interactive exhibits which together will allow visitors of all ages to immerse themselves in the magic of energy. Crucially, it will also help people understand some of the challenges we all face when it comes to powering the future.
What are those challenges? Well first, the ability of companies like SSE to provide the energy that people need – at an affordable price, in a secure way, while reducing carbon emissions – is known as the ‘energy trilemma’. Secondly, we also know that half of the energy sector’s workforce will leave or retire by 2023, creating a massive skills gap. That is a potential ticking time bomb for our industry so we need to take every opportunity to engage with and support the talent of tomorrow.
Exhibition content has been carefully considered to try and strike the right balance between fun and education, with a ‘hurricane booth’, Lego hydroelectric power station and underwater remote vehicle. From how energy is generated to how it is transformed, stored and transmitted, visitors will discover what happens to energy on its journey from source to the power switch in their homes.
Shining a light on the energy industry like this is one of the ways in which we can raise awareness of the challenges facing us, but also make our young people think differently about energy and, hopefully, consider it is a career.
It’s easy to take energy for granted and forget that it does amazing things for all of us every day, but the Powering the Future exhibition will remind us that energy can be fun as well as important.
Can you imagine a world without energy? It just doesn’t bear thinking about.
Photo: Michelle Hynd with local school children at the exhibition’s launch