A museum on Nova Scotia's Eastern Shore is known for looking and feeling like the 1940s, but when it comes to keeping the lights on, they're looking to the future.

Memory Lane Heritage Village in Lake Charlotte is the first fully solar-powered museum in Nova Scotia.

"The 1940s was an era of heightened awareness around reducing resource usage and learning how to make do with what you had," said Thea Wilson-Hammond, the museum's executive director.

The 1940s appear to be in full swing within the village. But just a few steps outside of the village's perimeter, 66 solar panels lie on a barn roof.

The panels are soaking up 35,000 kilowatt hours of energy in the run of a year, while Wilson-Hammond tracks electricity consumption through an app.

Between solar panels and other eco-friendly updates, the entire project cost $79,000.

It isn't the first major green initiative for the museum. Last year, Memory Lane installed a charging station for electric vehicles.

They also changed all 225 lightbulbs in the village to energy-efficient LED bulbs. Thanks to technological advancements, they're using ones that give off a warmer tone — much like an incandescent bulb — than a traditional LED bulb, which also fit better with the decade the village is trying to represent.

Based on the village's power consumption, Wilson-Hammond hopes to save about $5,000 a year, but won't know the exact savings until the solar panels have been in use for a while.

Wilson Hammond said she wants to keep brainstorming how to pair the conserve-and-save mentality of the 1940s with the technology of today.