Megawatt

The megawatt (symbol: MW) is a unit for measuring power equal to one million (10⁶) watts.

The productive capacity of electrical generators operated by utility companies is often measured in MW. Sometimes the abbreviation MWe is used to specify that this refers to the electric output of a thermal power station rather than the (larger) thermal energy production rate.

Few things can sustain the transfer or consumption of energy on this scale; some of these events or entities include: lightning strikes, naval craft (such as aircraft carriers and submarines), engineering hardware, and some scientific research equipment (such as the supercollider and large lasers).

Modern high-powered diesel-electric railroad locomotives typically have a peak power output of 3–5 MW, whereas a typical modern nuclear power plant produces on the order of 500–2,000 MWe peak output.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the earliest citing for "megawatt" is a reference in the 1900 Webster's International Dictionary of English Language. The OED also says "megawatt" appeared in a 28 November 1847 article in Science (506:2).

See also

* Orders of magnitude (power)
* Declared net capacity