What is a Megawatt?

The megawatt equals 1,000,000 watts (or 1,000 kW) and rates power plants, large industrial facilities, and grid-scale renewable installations worldwide. A typical natural-gas turbine generates 50–500 MW, a nuclear reactor produces 800–1,600 MW, and the largest hydroelectric plant (Three Gorges Dam in China) has 22,500 MW capacity. Wind turbines are rated 1.5–15 MW each (modern offshore turbines reach 14 MW). Solar farms range from 50 MW (small) to 1,500+ MW (large utility-scale projects). Electric grid demand for entire countries is measured in gigawatts (1 GW = 1,000 MW): the United States peaks at about 750 GW. The megawatt relates to the kilowatt (1,000 kW = 1 MW), the gigawatt (1,000 MW = 1 GW), and the megawatt-hour (when multiplied by time). Electricity wholesale markets bid in MW capacity and MWh energy.

Visual reference for how the megawatt relates to other power units. Each row links to the full converter for that pair.

• Power-station electrical output
• Wind and solar farm capacity
• Large industrial electricity consumption

• ✓1 MW = 1000 kW = 1,000,000 W.
• ✓GW (gigawatt) = 1000 MW for country-scale generation.
• ✓For energy output, multiply MW × hours = MWh.

• ✗Confusing MW (power) with MWh (energy).
• ✗Using kW for large generation — numbers become unwieldy.
• ✗Mixing installed capacity (MW) with actual output (which depends on use).