A Machynlleth visitor centre is set to undergo a "major redevelopment" as part of plans to update the site.

Staff at the Centre for Alternative Technology(CAT) say more details are in the pipeline, but CEO Peter Tyldesley revealed the planning phase is now underway to bring the popular renewable energy site and gardens up to date as part of its first major overhaul since opening nearly 50 years ago.

CAT is one of the largest employers in the Dyfi Valley and contributes around £1.5m to the local economy each year through wages and use of local suppliers, it says.

"We're planning at the moment for a major redevelopment of the CAT site," said Peter Tyldesley.

"We've been in our current home since 1974 and it's time for a bit of a refresh and in particular to make the site more appealing to the type of audiences we want to engage with going forward.

"Apart from that we're working extensively with community councils and groups to what we call our zero carbon hub and innovation lab to equip them with the tools they need to put political declarations of climate emergency into solid concrete actions."

As part of a wide ranging interview with Business Wales last week, he added that transitioning to "net zero" carbon emissions is now an urgent priority, and that the UK already had the technology needed to "get the job done".

On September 30 CAT is co-organising a free online conference showcasing the most ambitious and transformative zero carbon local authority led projects from across the UK and Europe.

"Looking to the future there's no doubt that technology will carry on improving and it will make the job easier but we can't afford to do is stake our entire future on technological developments that may or may not happen on time, we need to get on with it, there's a real urgency now about transitioning to net zero and the world is significantly behind where it needs to be to get to net zero by 2050.

"Some of the extreme weather events we've seen over the past few months in all sorts of different parts of the world show us that climate changer is not some remote possibility that may happen in decades time - it's happening now.

"In the UK we essentially need to cut our carbon emissions on half by the end of this decade. The government will over time put in place regulation that makes it impossible to do anything else."