DIDCOT is to become Britain’s “poo-power” capital when it starts generating gas from the human waste of townspeople.

Work is about to start on a pioneering British Gas project at Didcot sewage works to convert the contents of the town's toilet bowls into a power source for the nation's boilers and cookers.

By as early as summer this year, the first gas sourced from human waste could be flowing through Britain's pipelines.

It means that every flush of a Didcot loo could be helping to keep homes warm across the country.

British Gas spokesman Julian Mears said up to 15 per cent of domestic gas supply could be biomethane captured from human, household or farm waste by 2020.

He added: “The benefit of the Didcot plant is that it already has an anaerobic digestion unit.

“All we need to do is build a plant to clean up the gas.

“This is one of five projects we have announced, and it is the most advanced because a lot of what we need to do is already in existence there.”

British Gas parent company Centrica’s other projects include trials using animal manure, manufacturing waste and bi-products from breweries, which will be used to help generate gas, but Thames Water’s unmanned sewage works in Didcot will the first place in the UK where gas is to be generated from human waste.

Thames Water director Mel Karam said: “Our project with Centrica and Scotia Gas Networks at Didcot marks a big step forwards for our ‘poo-power’ endeavours “For decades, we have generated electricity by burning sewage sludge or methane derived from it, saving £15m in power bills last year alone.

"Next on our renewable energy hit list is using biomethane from sewage as another source of gas, so to see it become a reality later this year will be great for customers and great for the environment.”

The project follows the Government’s Renewable Heat Incentive, which offers energy companies a premium, which will be paid for producing environmentally-friendly biogas from April 2011.

Last February, National Grid said that half of Britain's homes could eventually be heated by renewable gas.

Elsewhere in Europe, biomethane is already a growing business. In Sweden, 15,000 cars run on biogas, and 10,000 people work at biogas plants in Germany.