WINDFARMS have cut greenhouse gases in Britain by the equivalent of taking 2.3 million cars off the road, according to a new study.

Scientists said their results show that the air pollution savings from windfarms have been underestimated in the past, and the technology should play a pivotal role in Scottish and UK government efforts to curb emissions.

The findings are detailed today in research by Edinburgh University engineers who analysed National Grid figures for the power generated by various sources including wind, coal and gas to calculate the most accurate snapshot of it kind to date on the electricity output of each, based on real - rather than estimated - figures for every half hour.

They found that electricity generated by windfarms prevented the creation of almost 36 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions from sources such as coal and gas over a six-year period from 2008-2014 - the equivalent of taking 2.3 million cars off the road.

The study demonstrates that previous estimates for carbon savings underestimated the benefits from windfarms by around 3.4 million tonnes.

Dr Camilla Thomson, from Edinburgh University's School of Engineering, who led the study, said: "Until now, the impact of clean energy from wind farms was unclear. Our findings show that wind plays an effective role in curbing emissions that would otherwise be generated from conventional sources, and it has a key role to play in helping to meet Britain's need for power in future."

WWF Scotland director Lang Banks said: "It's great to finally have an independent and authoritative study that puts a more accurate figure on the massive amounts of climate-damaging carbon emissions being avoided thanks to wind power.

"We've long known that wind power and other renewables were making a major contribution to reducing carbon pollution, but it's fantastic to learn more clearly just how huge that contribution is."

The Scottish Government has set a target to generate 100 per cent of the country's electricity demand from renewable sources by 2020, although current forecasts suggest it will fall short by around 10 per cent.

A spokesman for the Scottish Government spokesman said: "With 34 per cent of the UK's wind power generated in Scotland, this reinforces the crucial role of both on and offshore wind in meeting our international climate change obligations.

"It is particularly significant that the study is reported to suggest that a greater investment in wind energy could help meet Scottish and UK government targets for carbon emissions reduction."

A spokesman for the UK Government's Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, added: "Nearly £52 billion has been invested in renewables in the UK since 2010, and just last month we reiterated our commitment to spend a further £730 million per year supporting new renewable projects over the course of this parliament."

Meanwhile, scientists have warned today that surging methane emissions threaten to undermine efforts to slow climate change.

Concentrations of atmospheric methane, which can trap 28 times more heat than carbon dioxide , are now growing faster than at any time in the past two decades, according to a group of international experts writing in the journal Environmental Research Letters.

The gas comes from natural sources, including marshes and wetlands, but 60 per cent of it is generated by human activity such as cattle and rice farming and oil and gas wells during drilling.

Co-author Professor Robert Jackson, from Stanford University in the US, said: "The levelling-off we've seen in the past three years for carbon dioxide emissions is strikingly different from the recent rapid increase in methane."

He described the trend as "worrisome".