The plans are unpopular with others in the Cabinet, and Mr Shapps told Sky News: “I don’t favour a vast increase in onshore wind farms, for pretty obvious reasons – they sit on the hills there and can create something of an eyesore for communities as well as actual problems of noise as well.

“So I think for reasons of environmental protection, the way to go with this is largely – not entirely – but largely offshore.”

Asked whether that meant the idea of a big increase in the number of onshore wind farms was “effectively off the table for now”, he said: “I’d urge you to wait for the energy strategy later in the week.

“But my thinking is what you really want to do is develop in other ways … I don’t think you want a huge expansion of onshore wind. There may be cases where it makes sense, but I think by and large we’ve established that offshore works very well. And by the way, it’s providing quite a lot of our electricity already.”