The turbine defender Easing the resistance to clean energy tech

The prospect of pylons, wind turbines and solar farms springing up across the countryside has upset a number of T UK communities.

- Helena Horton

But the chair of Energy UK, Emma Pinchbeck, believes there is a way to decarbonise our electricity and soothe these tensions.

Pinchbeck is the next leader of the Climate Change Committee, and represents the industry which is charged with decarbonising the grid at the cheapest and fastest rate possible.

She understands why many feel resistance to the idea of changing the countryside: she lives in the Cotswolds, in an area of outstanding natural beauty. "I'm the 10th generation of my family to come from this land," she says. "My granny's brothers all farmed it.

"I intellectually understand that tackling climate change is about largely other parts of the world that will be much more impacted than I will be, or this landscape will be. But emotionally, I have a very strong, 'small c' conservative, instinct that I don't want this landscape to change, and I want to hand it to my children."

As the energy secretary, Ed Miliband, unblocks the planning system to allow onshore wind and solar to be built, these are feelings many in the countryside have.