Welcome to the Green Alliance podcast. We are the charity and think tank that's all about achieving ambitious leadership for the environment.

I'm Flossie Boyd, political advisor at Green Alliance.

It sounds unromantic, but one of the biggest challenges for getting the UK to net zero is building enough grid infrastructure.

Not only are building these networks important for transitioning to green energy,

but also essential for improving our energy security,

and making sure that households are getting cheaper energy into their homes to bring down energy bills for good.

We're hearing time and time again from policymakers and politicians on both

sides of the bench that grid is one of the biggest blockers for decarbonising fast enough. But what

is actually holding up grid connections? And how big is the scared of this problem? And what can we do

about it? Regen and MCS Charitable Foundation have thankfully answered some of these questions in their

recent report, building a GB electricity network ready for net zero. Frank Hodgson, the lead author,

is here to talk us through some of this. Frank, you've recently written an excellent report on the big issue of the day, how we get the

electricity grid ready for net zero. Before we get into the specifics, what are the key messages

you want people to take away from your report?

It's now widely accepted that transforming the grid is critical to achieving the UK's energy goals.

And getting to net zero will involve connecting gigawatts of new renewable generation and powering millions of electric vehicles and heat pumps.

So our key message from the report is that this is achievable.

It's a big challenge, but reform an investment that urgently needed

to ensure that the grid is not a barrier for net zero.

So you're optimistic, but as you say, it's a huge challenge.

Can you give us a bit of a sense of the scale of that challenge and why it's so important to overcome it?

Yeah, sure. So broadly, there are two really big challenges that the grid must overcome if we're going to achieve net zero.

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