What does 32 gigawatts of new wind energy look like?

Britain’s announcement today that it had awarded development rights for 32 gigawatts of new wind energy puts the UK in a whole new region of the global renewables map, as you can see by the two graphics below.

First, here’s how Britain stacks up today among the world’s top eight wind-power countries (figures are based on World Wind Energy Association’s installed capacity numbers from the “World Wind Energy Report 2008”):

Now, here’s what the UK’s installed capacity would look like if you added another 32 gigwatts of wind energy:

If it all went online tomorrow, the new capacity would clearly put Britain in the number one spot for wind-energy development. Of course, that’s not going to happen and other countries plan to keep expanding their wind-power capacity too, but you get the idea …