The huge step towards net zero that’ll change the way we power our kitchens

Thanks to The Great Grid Upgrade, we can look forward to powering our kitchens with cleaner, more affordable energy in the years to come

There’s no doubt our kitchens have come a long way in recent decades. Gone are the days of head-height grills or wrestling with a hand whisk. Today, you might cherish your powerful stand mixer, bread maker and coffee machine – you may even have embraced an air fryer over your oven in the name of energy efficiency and shorter cooking times.

As a nation of keen home cooks, we love to spend time in our kitchens creating delicious dishes, and modern technology has given us so many more options. But the unsung hero and secret source in most recipes is energy – without it, soufflés wouldn’t rise, bottoms would stay soggy and our roasties wouldn’t crisp.

Cooking up something big…

From mixing the batter to your final bake, energy threads through everything we do, but the way we power our kitchens is changing. In the coming years, we will be using more electricity than ever before to heat our homes, power our transport and fire up our kitchens. As we move towards cleaner energy sources, such as wind and solar power, we need a grid that can move this additional clean electricity, from where its generated – like out in the North Sea by wind turbines – to wherever it’s needed in UK homes and businesses.

To achieve this, and help the country reach net zero by 2050, the UK needs five times more electricity transmission infrastructure in the next seven years than has been built in the last 30. The Great Grid Upgrade by National Grid is key to making this happen and is the largest overhaul of the UK’s electricity grid in generations.

The UK already has one of the largest offshore wind capacities in the world, with some 13.6GW in operation, which is enough to power around 13 million homes. Recent years have also seen record-breaking amounts of renewable energy generated – for instance, in 2023, 36% of our energy came from wind, solar and hydro power. On a single day in December, a massive 56% of our energy came from wind.

With electricity demand expected to double, The Great Grid Upgrade will enable the electricity grid to carry more clean energy. This is essential for us to achieve net zero, and to meet the government’s goal of 140GW of wind power in our energy system by 2050 as well.

Indeed, connecting 50GW of offshore wind could save the equivalent carbon emissions of taking 5.2 million petrol or diesel cars off the road, or 509 million trees capturing and storing carbon every year.

The future is bright

By harnessing the nation’s potential to use renewable energy, The Great Grid Upgrade could result in lower electricity bills, with power from the wind and sun expected to be cheaper than imported gas. Having access to more homegrown clean energy will also be good for the planet and boost the self-sufficiency of Britain’s energy supply.

Not only that, but the investment necessary to realise the full extent of the project could support up to 130,000 jobs as part of the net zero energy workforce and will add up to £11bn to Great Britain’s economy by 2050*.

Homegrown energy, fairer prices, cleaner electricity — the benefits of The Great Grid Upgrade are clear. And to top it all off, in the future you’ll be able to keep on baking and air frying safe in the knowledge that cleaner energy is fuelling your favourite hobby and mealtimes.

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