Botanic centre powered by renewables

Using almost entirely renewable sources of energy, the new Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh is to open to visitors next year.

Instead of hiding the power source, the new John Hope Galway centre will make its wind turbine a centre point of the design in a bid to trigger debate and awareness of renewable energy.

It will also generate electricity from a bio-mass boiler and solar panels which will be part of the innovative design of the building.

Builders told the Edinburgh News that using a variety of sustainable building materials to create an unusual building was a "challenge" though they expressed their confidence that once finished the building would look "spectacular".

Alex Miller, managing director of developer Xircon, said the technology and materials used in the building could become more common in future.

"The building is using a lot of renewable materials, with the roof beams and floor slats all wooden, and created by high-quality craftsmen," he told the paper.

"The technical innovations within the building, including the wind turbine, bio-mass boiler, solar panels and rainwater collectors, are the kind of things more and more projects will encompass in future, and the Botanic garden is leading the way in that."