The Energy Museum offers an interactive and educational way to explore Latvia’s energy history, the development of technology, and the importance of the energy sector.
About the Energy Museum
The Elektrum Energy Museum in Ķegums is a place where history, technology and a vision of the future come together.
The museum was founded in 1995 and is the only museum of its kind in Latvia, offering visitors the opportunity to explore the history of the Latvian energy sector and the growth of Latvenergo – the largest energy supply company in the Baltics, to learn about renewable energy generation and the preservation of biodiversity, to discover the uniqueness of industrial and documentary heritage.
By preserving energy heritage and strengthening the link between the past and the future, the Elektrum Energy Museum promotes understanding of the energy sector and its importance to the national economy, encourages young people’s interest in technology, physics and engineering, the study of STEM subjects, and the choice of engineering careers.
The museum’s exhibitions tell the story of green energy generation, the construction of power plants, modern innovations, remarkable people and significant events. The open-air exhibition features historic power plant turbines, power circuit breakers, transformers and other artefacts illustrating the history of technology. The interactive exhibits, meanwhile, invite visitors to get creatively involved themselves:
- to learn about environmentally friendly energy generation at hydro, solar and wind power plants, as well as thermal power plants, in the interactive exhibit “Electricity in the City”
- to explore the Ķegums Hydroelectric Power Plant through an interactive model
- to understand the operating principles of a hydroelectric power plant and, in a simulation game, set it in motion to generate electricity
- to watch video stories about the restoration of fish resources and become virtually involved in these activities through play
Among Latvian museums, the Elektrum Energy Museum holds a special place because it preserves the glass plate photographic negative collection by cinematographer and photographer Eduards Kraucs (1898–1977) on the construction of the Ķegums Power Plant (1936–1940), included in UNESCO’s “Memory of the World” Latvian National Register.
Energy heritage, the history of the sector and the development of Latvenergo can also be explored through timelines, interactive maps, historical photographs, newsreels and digital exhibitions on the website energetikasmuzejs.lv/en
Collection
The museum’s collection contains more than 30,000 items bearing witness to the history of the Latvian energy sector and Latvenergo. Here, visitors can see in person the original glass plate photographic negatives from the collection of photographer and cinematographer Eduards Kraucs (1898–1977), included in UNESCO’s “Memory of the World” Latvian National Register, documenting the construction of the Ķegums Power Plant in 1936 –1940.
The storage collection includes a wide variety of electricians’ tools, various measuring instruments and metering equipment, including more than 500 electricity meters reflecting their development from the beginning of the 20th century to the present day. Also on display here are transformers manufactured in the 1930s at the State Electrotechnical Factory “VEF”, an early 20th-century street lamp from Liepāja and an extensive collection of insulators, the most interesting items of which are high-voltage insulators produced more than 100 years ago at the Kuznetsov Porcelain and Faience Factory in Riga.
Here you can explore various fragments of dispatch control diagrams and the control equipment of the Valmiera substation.
The storage collection also includes a collection of household electrical appliances, featuring items that have now become retro electrical appliances such as the Rīga-60 washing machine, hair dryers, radios, vacuum cleaners, mixers manufactured by the “Straume” factory, coffee grinders and electric irons. Also on display here is the first electric car registered for road use in Latvia – FIAT Fiorino Elettrico.
The most significant items in the collection can also be explored at energetikasmuzejs.lv/en, allowing visitors to explore energy heritage digitally.
The glass-based photographic negative collection “The Construction Process of the Ķegums Power Plant (1936–1940)” by the distinguished Latvian photographer and cinematographer Eduards Kraucs (1898–1977) was included in UNESCO’s “Memory of the World” Latvian National Register in 2009.
The collection is unique and irreplaceable both as a chronological depiction of a historical event – the construction process of the Ķegums Power Plant – and as an outstanding example of the professional work of photographer Eduards Kraucs. The 1,736 photographic negatives depict the construction of the Ķegums Hydroelectric Power Plant, creating for the viewer a sense of presence in the very heart of the power plant – the machine hall and the control panel – while also allowing them to experience the period dynamics of the waters of the Daugava, technology and human values. The collection is the only known photographic documentation in Europe of a construction site on such a large scale.
In the digital exhibition “Ķegums Hydroelectric Power Plant in Eduards Kraucs’s Photographs” you can view Eduards Kraucs’s finest photographs of the construction of the Ķegums Hydroelectric Power Plant. The photo story is complemented by fascinating facts from the construction diaries of the Ķegums Hydroelectric Power Plant, as well as information about outstanding Latvian engineers who organised and led the construction of the power plant.
Interested visitors can view the digital exhibition at energetikasmantojums.lv/en/
At energetikasmuzejs.lv you can also view all 1,736 photographs taken by Eduards Kraucs of the construction of the Ķegums Hydroelectric Power Plant from August 1936 to July 1940.
Elektrum Energy Museum invites pupils to embark on an educational journey into the world of energy – from their first understanding of electricity to discussions about future energy solutions.
In four educational sessions pupils learn about the principles of electricity, explore the history and cultural heritage of Latvian energy, renewable energy production and the most significant technological innovations. The sessions help pupils understand how the energy sector has changed people’s lives over the centuries and what solutions will shape our future, while also encouraging interest in STEM and the energy sector.
Learn more at energetikasmuzejs.lv
Museum Contact Details
Ķeguma prospekts 7/9
Ķegums (left bank of the Daugava River)
Opening Hours (visits by prior appointment only)
Monday: Closed
Tuesday-Friday: 9:00 AM–3:00 PM
Saturday: 9:00 AM–5:00 PM
Sunday: Closed
Museum public fee pricelist
muzejs@elektrum.lv
