Dung-powered power plant unveiled

Traffic to the plant will not disrupt local people says the firm

A Devon farmer has announced plans to build a huge biogas plant at Rackenford, near Tiverton.

The £25m scheme is the brainchild of Winston Reed, founder of the Greener for Life company, which is dedicated to sustainable food and energy supply.

The aim of the project is to make Tiverton's 20,000 people non-dependent on fossil fuels in five years.

The plant would use cow slurry, crops, and some of the 40,000 tonnes of food waste which goes to landfill in Devon.

Manure pipe

The proposal will be formally submitted as a planning application in about six weeks.

Mr Reed said lorry traffic should not upset local people as the main road, the A361, was next to the plant.

The cow manure will be piped into the plant underground from a nearby farm.

The firm aims to produce 10 million litres of bio diesel a year as well as fertiliser as a by-product of the process which is called anaerobic (without oxygen) digestion.

The methane carbon dioxide produced from the raw ingredients will be used to power a generator.