The latest technology for harnessing solar and water power will be used in a £250,000 project for a new Environment Agency centre.

It will be built on land owned by international research and development company, HR Wallingford.

The company has been commissioned to design the new centre, which will be built near to its own headquarters at Howbery Park, in Crowmarsh Gifford, near Wallingford.

The Department of Trade and Industry is donating £180,000.

Panels of photovoltaic cells will turn sunlight into electricity.

John Ormston, managing director of Howbery Estates, said: "We own an attractive site next to the Thames which is too large for us, so we are developing it into a water technology park."

HR Wallingford will lease the building to the Environment Agency, which already has premises at Howbery Park.

South Oxfordshire District Council has granted planning permission, but contractors have not been signed up yet.