Communities secretary Ruth Kelly has unveiled proposals which could allow homeowners to install energy-generating devices like solar panels without planning permission.
Kelly was on Wednesday launching a consultation on the measures with a speech to the Green Alliance in London.
Where there is little or no impact on neighbours, the plans would make it possible to install small-scale solar panels, wind turbines and ground and water source heat pumps - used to heat and cool homes.
There are more than 100,000 microgeneration installations nationwide, but Kelly is expected to say that planning applications can take up to three months and cost up to £1,000.
"The local planning system should support efforts to tackle climate change rather than acting as a barrier," she said.
"We need changes to ensure the system is proportionate - whilst retaining clear, common-sense safeguards on noise, siting and size."
She added: "We can only succeed if we match local action alongside global agreement. The real action to implement steps to a low carbon economy and society has to take place at community level."
A study commissioned by the Department of Trade and Industry concluded that by 2050, microgeneration could provide 30-40 per cent of the UK's energy needs and reduce annual household carbon emissions by 15 per cent.
Under the proposals, councils will be able to deny permission in "exceptional" circumstances where the benefit is questionable.
And Kelly made an apparent swipe at Conservative leader David Cameron by suggesting that plans for a wind turbine on his London home are an example of such a scheme.
An example of where permission could be rejected is "a wind turbine in a built-up area with little wind".
