Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The Pôle des Énergies (formerly the Musée de l'électrification) is a renewable energy centre located in Bourganeuf (Creuse, Nouvelle-Aquitaine). It builds on local industrial history to address past and future energy challenges, highlighting the city's technical heritage, including its pioneering role in rural electrification.

The Bourganeuf electric plant, built under the direction of engineer Ernest Lamy, was initially fed by the waters of the Verger Creek via a augets wheel dynamo. In 1886, a summer drought made this system insufficient for the city's 60 luminous points, pushing for an alternative solution: to exploit the Jarrauds waterfall, located 14 km away. This site offered a height difference of 14 meters, ideal for stable electrical production.

Between 1888 and 1889, under the impetus of engineer Marcel Deprez, a pioneering installation was carried out: a 130 horsepower turbine connected to Bourganeuf by a cable of 5 mm in diameter, carrying electricity for a distance never before seen in France. This project also includes the first regional telephone, linking the waterfall to the city. The factory then supplied 106 lamps (street, church, town hall), marking a major technological advance at the Belle Époque.

Today, the Pôle des Energies perpetuates this memory by proposing a reflection on energy transitions, while valuing this exceptional industrial heritage. The gorges of the Verger and the waterfall of the Jarrauds remain symbols of this historic innovation.

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