EASTLEIGH MP Chris Huhne has revealed plans to build up to 32,000 new wind turbines in the Government’s bid to reduce its carbon footprint.

A report by the Department of Energy and Climate Change, headed up by Energy Secretary Mr Huhne, describes how the country might cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent by 2050.

It has been reported that the proposals put forward in the carbon plan also include converting all petrol and diesel cars in Britain to electric in that period.

The proposals would add to the 3,000 or so onshore wind turbines already installed and the few hundred offshore – these generate about one to two per cent of the country’s power.

They add that an estimated 6,000 to 10,000 new turbines are needed onshore and another 25,000 offshore.

Earlier this year Dutch-based energy firm Eneco announced proposals to build up to 240 wind turbines nine miles offshore from Barton-on-Sea and 8.4 miles from The Needles on the Isle of Wight.

The plans have led to objections from environmental groups.

The company has been holding a series of public information days for people to find out more and meeting with local interested groups.

A formal consultation period is scheduled to start in early 2012 with the company expected to put in a planning application in 2013.

If given the go-ahead, the wind farm is expected to be built between 2016-19.

In the plan, Mr Huhne says that road transport produces 130 million tons of CO2 a year, which amounts to a quarter of the nation’s emissions.

Alongside changes to vehicles, Mr Huhne wants to see gas heating in homes and businesses replaced with electricity, to be generated through low-carbon means such as nuclear and wind power.

It has been reported that to cope with this conversion, Britain will have to increase its electricity production, even double it.

Mr Huhne’s carbon plan proposes that renewable energy, largely from wind, be expanded over the next 20 years from five gigawats to 50GW.

Mr Huhne said: “The carbon plan is a road map for a new industrial revolution in which low-carbon electricity powers the economy and protects us from reliance on imports from volatile parts of the world.”