The UK’s Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) granted permission for the facility at Royal Portbury Dock in the Port of Bristol.

The German group’s E.ON Climate and Renewables division expects to power 160,000 homes from the plant.

It will be fuelled mainly by imported virgin wood, dedicated energy crops and locally-sourced waste wood.

E.ON has previously said it could begin operations at the new biomass facility as early as 2015 once permission was received.