Leading British utility company Scottish Power will become the first major energy firm in the UK to completely transition to clean energy - switching entirely from fossil fuel sources and instead focusing on wind power.

Keith Anderson, the CEO, said that Scottish Power was ready to leave fossil fuels behind and to focus on a cleaner, greener future that was powered by more cost-efficient renewable technologies. He explained that the company had already closed down its coal operations, sold off its gas reserves and build sufficient new wind power developments to provide clean energy for more than 1.2 million homes.

Scottish Power's gas stations and hydropower operations have reportedly been bought by Drax for £702 million. Scottish Power is also planning to invest over £5bn in its renewable energy operations in the coming four years in a bid to build its green energy sources by over 100pc and to ensure that Britain's electricity can become both greener and cheaper.

Greenpeace spokeswoman Kate Blagojevic told the BBC that Europe's large utilities had been steadily divesting their old fossil fuel plants because this polluting infrastructure no longer made sense from an economic or climate perspective. She added that this trend showed that renewable energy really was the future for powering the modern world and that the government now needed to give full and meaningful backing to green energy technologies rather than continuing to subsidise nuclear power and fossil fuel industries.

Scottish Power has been steadily closing its coal plants over the past ten years and has developed over 2,700MW of wind energy capacity in the UK. It also has other green energy projects in development with over 3,000MW of total capacity. Drax is also moving away from fossil fuels by converting its coal plants to biomass burners.