"The draft plan I'm setting out today could allow companies to develop 25 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2020, in addition to the eight gigawatts already planned," Energy Secretary John Hutton said in a statement.

The combined 33 gigawatts would produce enough electricity to power 25 million homes.

The plans must be assessed for their environmental impact before receiving the green light, "but if we could manage to achieve this, by 2020 enough electricity could be generated off our shores to power the equivalent of all of the UK's homes," Hutton said.

"This could be a major contribution towards meeting the EU's target of 20 percent of energy from renewable sources by 2020."

Britain currently produces almost five percent of its energy from renewable sources.

Hutton admitted the plans would change the face of the English coast, with the equivalent of one wind turbine every 1.6 kilometres (one mile), but said sacrifices had to be made in the search for 'greener' energy.

"There's no way of making the shift to low carbon technology without making a change and that change being visible to people," he told the BBC ahead of the announcement.

The plans include the biggest wind farm in the world, a 1.5-billion-pound (2.08-billion-euro, 3.06-billion-dollar) project comprising 341 wind turbines in the Thames Estuary that was given the go-ahead in December last year.

It alone will produce one gigawatt, enough to power 750,000 homes.

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