The Power of a Megawatt
Smaller solar and wind installations will be defined in kilowatts. A megawatt (MW) is 1,000,000 watts or 1,000 kilowatts (kW), while a gigawatt (GW) is 1,000 MW or 1,000,000
A megawatt (MW) is a unit of power equal to: 1 MW = 1,000 kW = 1,000,000 W MW is used to describe instantaneous output for: Utility-scale solar power plants Wind farms and hybrid renewable systems Commercial & industrial energy storage systems (C&I ESS) Diesel-PV-storage hybrid microgrids Manufacturing plants and industrial parks
Why megawatts matter in modern energy systems: Solar Farms: A 5 MW solar plant generates ~7,300 MWh/year, offsetting 5,000 tons of CO₂. Battery Storage: Industrial-scale 10 MW lithium batteries stabilize grids during peak demand.
A megawatt measures power on a large scale, so one megawatt can power a lot more than one household. The megawatt is the standard term of measurement for bulk electricity.1 The capacity of small solar facilities is measured in kilowatts, so one one-thousandth of a megawatt.
According to one source, on average, 1 megawatt of solar power generates enough electricity to power 164 U.S. homes.3 So, 100 megawatts of solar power can power 16,400 U.S. homes. A single megawatt-hour can power the following:
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