A community in southwestern Ontario plans to be the first manure-powered municipality in Canada, by turning manure into electricity.

The province announced, Monday, it would spend $1.6 million to help build a plant to convert biogas from manure into heat and electricity.

Manure-power plant also eliminates odour

The project will also create three new full-time jobs, and reduce farm odours by 80 per cent, the province said.

The Municipality of North Middlesex, located north of London, will buy 2,500 megawatt-hours of electricity from the plant every year. The province says that will be enough power for all municipally owned property.

"It's a win-win situation for everyone," Energy Minister Dwight Duncan said in a news release. "We are able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and our dependence on non-renewable forms of energy, while creating new economic opportunities in rural Ontario."

The Lynn Cattle Company Inc. will build the integrated anaerobic-digestion facility at the heart of the project.