Britain's first dung-fired power station has won an environmental award.

The pioneering �7.7m complex, at Holsworthy, north Devon, has won the UK Euro Solar award for 2002 for its builders, German-based Farmatic UK.

The plant runs on around 1.6m tons of slurry collected each year from 30 local farmers.

At full capacity, it will produce around 1.4 megawatts of power.

Slurry for the station comes from local farms

The accolade was awarded by Energy 21, a branch of the Euro Solar educational charity, which creates awareness and understanding of renewable energy.

The plant started producing electricity for the National Grid earlier this year.

Slurry is fermented in two digesters and produces methane gas to power turbines to produce electricity.

The plant's processes also produce hot water for domestic use.

The plant was funded with a European grant of over �3.5m, as well as money from Farmatic.

There has been wide interest in the plant from across UK, and Farmatic said it was hoping to establish others around the country.

Global priority

The company said: "What we are doing is very safe and a lot of people have shown an interest in the UK, but they are waiting to see this one running first.

"We hope to build at least 100 farms in the UK."

Energy 21 said: "Power generation cannot rely indefinitely on sources of energy such as provided by coal, gas, oil and nuclear fuels.

"To solve these issues, a shift to methods of producing heat and electricity that do not compromise the environment and the needs of future generations is a global priority."

Dung-fuelled power stations are popular in both Germany and Denmark, with about 20-large scale plants operating in each country.