An offshore wind farm which will provide enough electricity to power 372,000 homes was given the go-ahead yesterday.

The 500-megawatt Duddon Sands offshore wind farm scheme planned off the coast of Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, is one of the largest offshore wind farms to get the green light in the UK to date.

Comprising up to 139 turbines near Walney Island, the wind farm was announced by Prime Minister Gordon Brown at a speech to business leaders at the CBI Scotland's annual dinner last night.

He said it was the first step towards "a new ambition to free Britain from the dictatorship of oil".

Morecambe Wind Ltd, a consortium of ScottishPower, Eurus Energy from Japan and Denmark's state-controlled DONG Energy, is to build and operate the farm.

An industry official said it would take several years to build a wind farm of this scale and that it would require investment of well over £1bn.

The government said it had also given the green light to an updated application to Ormonde Energy Ltd to build a 150 megawatt offshore wind farm, near Walney Island.

The project, developed by Ormonde's parent Eclipse Energy Co Ltd, is the world's first offshore gas-wind hybrid energy project, which would generate power from gas during calm weather or periods of wind turbine shutdown.

Energy Secretary John Hutton said: "These wind farms demonstrate our commitment to dramatically increase the amount of energy we generate from renewable sources, helping to cut the UK's carbon emissions and secure our energy supplies."

The project approval comes as the foundations of a another £325m offshore wind farm off the Solway Coast were put in place for 10 of the planned 60 turbines at the offshore Robin Rigg wind farm. The turbines, situated some 7.5 miles off the coast of Maryport, could be in place by the end of this month.

E.on, the energy company which is building the wind farm, still plans to have the operation, which could provide power to 117,000 homes, up and running by the middle of next year.

In July a £600m scheme to build Europe's largest onshore wind farm near Abington, South Lanarkshire, was approved. The 152-turbine Clyde wind farm near will be capable of powering up to 320,000 homes.

The project by Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE) is expected to create 200 jobs during construction, with 30 staff employed on completion.

The approval for the development between Biggar and Moffat follows a public inquiry that was concluded in 2006.

Building work is due to begin within the next year, with completion in 2011. The phased construction will see turbines erected in clusters on either side of the M74 motorway.