The Wiess Energy Hall is the most technologically-advanced exhibition on the science and technology of energy anywhere in the world.
Visitors enter the expansive 30,000 square feet exhibit — almost the size of a football field — by stepping out of the elevator onto a 21st century offshore drilling rig. Further into the exhibit hall, a replica of a tricone rotary drill bit — fourteen feet in diameter — spins overhead.
Not far away, the Geovator takes visitors on a fantastic voyage plunging down through the museum floors into the earth, then back in time to the Cretaceous period for an attack by hungry pteranodons and a meteor strike.
The energy value chain is brought to life in “Energy City,” a 2,500-square-foot 3-D landscape representing Houston, the surrounding coastal waters and the terrain of southeast and central Texas.
The Eagle Ford Shale Experience, a.k.a. the “EFX 3000,” beckons visitors to step aboard for a wild ride out to prime Texas shale oil and gas drilling country and down into the borehole of an oil well, made real with curved projection techniques and mechanical motion effects. Reduced to microscopic size, the craft ventures into the narrow spaces of a hydraulic micro-fracture, surrounded by seemingly massive grains of proppant. Things may get a little dodgy for a bit, but the EFX makes a safe return to the museum!
The Unconventional Hydrocarbon Revolution enlightens visitors on how shale oil and shale gas have transformed the U.S. energy picture, and delves into the growing importance of renewable energy sources, as well as experimental and cutting-edge technology happening right now — and in the future. Highlights include a detailed exploration of solar energy and wind energy, two sources in which Texas is a national leader, as well as various forms of ocean energy, fuel cells, geothermal energy and fusion power.
Finally, the “Energy Jukebox” featuring “PowerPlayz,” a collection of ten inescapably catchy songs that explore topics including conservation, renewable energy, biomass, hydrogen power, nuclear fission, oil, natural gas, unconventional hydrocarbons, electricity and thermonuclear fusion.
PowerPlayz-Teaszer from HMNS on Vimeo.
Prepare to see energy as you’ve never seen it before in the incomparable new Wiess Energy Hall.
Wiess Energy 3.0 Renovation Campaign Donors
The renovation and construction of the Wiess Energy Hall is generously underwritten by:
$1,500,000 – 10,000,000
Oxy
The Cockrell Foundation
The Elkins Foundation
Chevron
GeoSouthern Energy Partners GP, LLC
Walter Oil & Gas Corporation
$1,000,000
ConocoPhillips
Enterprise Products Partners L.P.
EOG Resources, Inc.
Exxon Mobil Corporation
Halliburton Foundation, Inc.
Phillips 66
Shell USA, Inc.
$350,000 – $500,999
Aramco
Constellation and Exelon Foundation
EnCap Investments L.P.
Texas Crude Energy, LLC – K.C. Weiner & Peter J. Fluor
LINN Energy
$250,000
Cheniere Energy
Claire and Joe Greenberg
HMW Entertainment
William S. and Lora Jean Kilroy Foundation
LyondellBasell
Marathon Oil Corporation
Kelly and Bill Montgomery
Patterson-UTI Energy, Inc.
Simmons & Company International
Carolyn and Garry Tanner
TC Energy
TotalEnergies
Jennifer and Wil VanLoh
Michele and Dheeraj Verma
$100,000
The Brown Foundation, Inc.
Oasis Petroleum
Susanne and William E. Pritchard III
$50,000 – $99,999
David Williams
Up to $49,999
Mr. and Mrs. Carl A. Davis
The Alan & Michelle Smith Family Fund