A Churchillian effort will be needed if Britain is to meet its target of getting 15 per cent of its energy needs from renewable sources by 2020, Peers have warned.

And it will require a massive shake-up of how power is produced and distributed across the energy industry, the European Union Committee says in a new report.

Britain gets only about two per cent of its energy from renewable sources, mostly from wind farms and will be hard-pressed to meet the 15 per cent target imposed by the EU, the report concludes.

Much will depend on the Government being able to persuade the public to use less power and to begin thinking about producing their own electricity at home - so called micro generation.

To achieve this planning laws will have to be shunted aside and Ministers given more powers to drive through renewable energy schemes even when there is local opposition.

The Committee chairman, Lord Freeman, said: "The target is achievable but only through a tremendous national effort on a Churchillian scale.

"Priorities will have to be changed and will involve everybody from the consumer producing electricity at home to the big power companies."

The Government is criticised in the report for not tackling energy efficiency in its Renewable Energy Strategy and it calls for a 20 per cent energy reduction target by 2020.

The report claims 41 per cent of the UK's energy use is for heating and cooling and says renewable heat technologies and micro-electricity generation should form a key part of the strategy.

It calls for bigger grants to give homeowners the incentive to install the new technology needed to start generating their own electricity.