Sturgeon tells Cameron to look again at "perverse" decision to scrap wind-farm subsidies

In a letter to the Prime Minister, the First Minister claimed the announcement would have a disproportionate and profound impact on Scotland, threatening 5400 industry jobs and £3 billion in lost investment.

Pointing out how onshore wind was the cheapest way of producing large-scale renewable electricity in the UK, Ms Sturgeon noted how many in the industry had warned of a legal challenge by companies whose investment in planned schemes had been "rendered useless" by the decision.

"I ask that you look again at the impact these proposals will have on the Scottish and the wider UK economy and find an alternative approach," the FM added.

She was not alone in her condemnation as other political parties, industry figures and green campaigners hit out at a decision they branded "mad-cap", "backward" and "irrational".

An announcement had been expected for some time following the promise in the Conservative election manifesto to "end any new public subsidy" for onshore wind-farms, which the party believes many people feel are a blight on local communities.

The proposal is to end the subsidies for wind under the Renewables Obligation - funded through green levies on consumers' bills - a year earlier than expected from April 1 2016.

Yet under the plans, there will be a grace period offered to projects with planning consent, which could see up to 5.2 gigawatts of wind capacity - equal to hundreds if not thousands of wind turbines - being put up across the UK.

Amber Rudd, the Energy Secretary, said: "We want to help technologies stand on their own two feet, not encourage a reliance of public subsidies. So we are driving forward our commitment to end new onshore wind subsidies and give local communities the final say over any new wind farms."

Ms Rudd said there were enough subsidised onshore wind schemes to meet renewable energy commitments. Yet a European Commission progress report this week suggested the UK was set to miss its renewables targets for 2020; No 10 said it did not accept the claim.

Nor did the Department of Energy and Climate Change accept that the scrapping of subsidies would push up energy bills, saying there was a cap on the cost of renewables to consumers and, including projects that had planning permission, the UK had as much onshore wind as predicted.

"If we'd allowed the renewables obligation to stay open longer, we could have ended up with more projects than we can afford, which would have led to either higher bills or other renewable technologies losing out on support, " a spokesman said.

But critics warned cutting support for renewables set a bad example to other countries in the run-up to key international climate talks in Paris in December, when a global deal on reducing emissions is to be negotiated.

Green Party leader Natalie Bennett said: "The Department of Energy and Climate Change's statement that 'we have enough onshore wind now' is laughable given how badly the UK is lagging behind other EU nations in our production of renewable energy."

Liberal Democrat Alistair Carmichael, the former Scottish Secretary who represents Orkney and Shetland, described the decision as "blinkered", "outdated" and a "lamentable sop to the Tory right wing".

Paul McCullagh, head of Glasgow-based UrbanWind, one of the UK's leading renewable energy companies, said: "Amber Rudd said when she entered office that carbon reduction was one of the most important things she will do as the Energy Minister, so enacting an early ban on the cheapest and most easily deployable method of generating clean energy now seems like a complete backwards step."

Niall Stuart, Chief Executive of industry body Scottish Renewables, said the UK Government's decision to close the Renewables Obligation a year earlier than planned was "bad for jobs, bad for investment and can only hinder Scotland and the UK's efforts to meet binding climate change targets".