Oman Botanic Gardens to set up solar panels

By V L Srinivasan

Muscat, Feb 7: As part of its commitment to sustainable development, the Oman Botanic Garden (OBG) will set up a solar plant to generate its own electricity and meet some of the energy demands of the garden’s core buildings.

The OBG is a project taken up by the Office for Conservation of the Environment (part of the Diwan of Royal Court) and is being built on an area of 420 hectares on the outskirts of Muscat to conserve and protect the plants and plant heritage of Oman.

The proposed 'solar field' will cover a 5,000 sq m area and will be constructed during the third phase of the project.

The project developers decided to have solar power to help reduce the garden’s reliance on non-renewable fossil fuels, its carbon footprint and provide a positive example for using the technology in Oman.

The developers are also planning the planting of the first of its naturalistic habitats with 10,000 plants and trees grown in the nursery over the last few years. The horticultural team has already propagated over 370 species (out of the 1,200 plant species native to Oman) with over 75,000 individual plants – the garden holds the largest documented collection of Arabian plants in the world.

Energy generation is just part of OBG's plans to become a model for sustainability in Oman, "Solar power forms part of our integrated sustainability plan which covers design, construction and operation of the garden,” OBG’s media officer Faiza al Lawati told Muscat Daily.

As part of the plans, the core buildings currently under construction, the Orientation Centre, Field Studies Centre and Research Centre, will undergo the rigorous US Green Building Council LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification process. “Once it is completed, the OBG will become the first LEED accredited project in the sultanate,” Faiza said.

“This certification will demonstrate to visitors that OBG is able to recycle and use water efficiently, source recycled, locally produced and safe materials for construction building fit-out, minimise our energy use and invest in renewable energy sources. It is estimated that a ‘green’ building costs about 7-12 per cent more to construct than a regular one, but with savings of 30 per cent on water use and 40 per cent on energy use, they will be economical to run,” she added.

According to Craig Tucker, the health, safety and environment manager for Bovis Lend Lease, the project managers for OBG, buildings are responsible for 40 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, use 12 per cent of the world's freshwater and 40 per cent of waste in landfill is from construction and deconstruction activities.

“The LEED certification provides a structure and framework for the design, construction and operation of our buildings, with very strict guidelines and technical requirements relating to a wide range of green building concepts
and also to the health and comfort of building occupants,” Tucker said.

The garden will include a range of outside habitats, with large, climate-controlled conservatories to display the diverse flora of the northern and southern mountains.

It is hoped the garden will become an important conservation and research project, and a significant tourist attraction for Omani and international visitors.