A megawatt is a unit of power equivalent to one million watts (10⁶ watts), or one thousand kilowatts. As a unit of power, a megawatt expresses the rate at which energy is produced. A megawatt is equivalent to one million joules per second. A megawatt is a fairly large unit of power and is used, therefore, when discussing the size of a power plant, a nation's total energy-generating capacity, or some other such large statistic. For example, the total electrical energy generating capacity for the state of California in 1988 was 45,900 megawatts.

See Also

Energy and the Environment; Energy Efficiency