Plans to cover swathes of the countryside with wind farms will cost every family at least £260 a year in higher fuel bills, it emerged yesterday.

The Government said the sacrifice was needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and meet EU targets for green energy.

Under £100billion plans unveiled by Gordon Brown, at least 4,000 wind turbines will go up in some of the UK's most beautiful scenery, while another 3,000 will be built at sea.

Power point: The Braes O'Doune wind farm near Stirling Castle in Scotland

There will be grants to encourage householders to add solar panels, wind turbines and green heating systems to their homes.

And dustmen could be made to collect food scraps and slops from homes to turn them into green energy.

The Prime Minister said the plans represented a green revolution. But critics warned that the 'dash for wind' was a fantasy.

At least one new wind turbine would have to go up every day between now and 2020 to meet the targets.

And to guarantee that Britain's lights stayed on 365 days a year, a vast fleet of gas, coal and nuclear power stations will be needed in reserve.

The move has been caused by the looming energy crisis. Within five years, many nuclear and coal power stations will be shut – leaving a hole at the heart of the National Grid.

At the same time, the EU wants 15 per cent of Britain's energy to come from renewable sources such as solar, wind, tide and wave power.

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Yesterday's consultation paper says most of that extra green energy should come from an expansion of wind farms from 2,000 now to around 7,000 by 2020 – enough to meet one third of Britain's electricity demand.

Energy companies will be encouraged to build farms through Government incentives.

A typical wind turbine can produce up to 1.7 megawatts of electricity. At full capacity, that's enough power for 1,000 homes – but over a year a turbine generates only about 30 per cent of its maximum possible output.

The Government says the shift to renewable energy will create 160,000 'green collar' jobs – but will need a shake-up of the planning system to speed up planning decisions.

‘It’s the PM’s great ambition
that everyone should have
their own wind turbine.’

Mr Brown said: 'This is a green revolution in the making. It will be a tenfold increase on our current deployment of renewables, and a 300 per cent increase on our existing plans: The most dramatic change in our energy policy since the advent of nuclear power.'

It will come at a price, however. Energy companies will pay for the new farms, but will pass on the costs to consumers from 2015.

By 2020, the report says, electricity bills will be up to 13 per cent higher – or £48 a year.

The price of gas will be up to 37 per cent higher – or an extra £209 a year. At the same time, businesses will pass the extra cost of their energy to consumers in higher prices.

The report calls for an increase in the use of trees, straw, waste and energy crops to produce electricity.

It says nearly one million tons of 'biomass' could be removed from existing woods to use in power stations, while an area the size of Essex could be turned over to creating fuel crops, putting even more pressure on food supplies and prices.

Some engineers believe the Government's plans are too ambitious.

Professor Ian Fells, a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, said: 'People are busy pulling out of offshore wind schemes – wind power is the most expensive way of removing carbon from the atmosphere.'

Greenpeace described the strategy as 'visionary', but warned that ministers had promised much before and had so far failed to deliver.