The company says that it would turn agricultural manure and local crops, along with household and processed organic waste, into heat and power or biofuel.

A public exhibition of the plans is due to be held next month before a planning application is submitted to Mid Devon District Council.

The firm had aimed to put in a planning application before the end of summer, but had to wait for the results of a traffic impact assessment concerning traffic bringing waste and other fuel to the plant.

The company said that the first phase of the project would be to build an anaerobic digestion plant.

But the scheme had been designed so that biofuels, wind generation and biomass production could be developed as additional phases.