The UK Government has unveiled long-awaited proposals to meet EU climate change targets and reduce dependency on fossil fuels to secure future energy supplies.
The plans will push for more wind turbines and solar panels to meet the government's 15% renewable power target by 2020.
The government says the plans are likely to include up to a third of electricity coming from renewables as well as significant increases in the use of renewable forms of heat and transport fuels.
Speaking alongside the prime minister at the government's Low Carbon Economy Summit in London, Business Secretary John Hutton said: "We are opening a new chapter in Britain's history as a nation of enterprise and innovation, moving from the old, carbon intensive economy of the industrial revolution to the new low carbon technologies of the 21st century."
The proposals have been welcomed by Britain's Renewables Advisory Board (RAB), which in a statement said that "rapid development of a wide range of renewables is essential to the nation's future energy strategy".
But the group also warns that "strong political leadership will be required to implement the necessary policy changes within a very demanding timescale".
The government and energy watchdog Ofgem also published a new package of measures to speed-up grid connections for renewable energy projects, which could lead to 1GW of wind being connected within two years.
A backlog of around 10GW of wind energy at various stages of development is currently waiting in the queue for grid connection, the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) said in a statement.
The BERR said the green energy blueprint will create 160,000 jobs.
By Ozge Ibrahim
