A megawatt (MW) equals one million watts and is the standard unit for measuring power plant capacity. A typical coal plant might have 500-1,000 MW capacity, a nuclear plant 1,000-1,400 MW, and a utility-scale solar farm 100-500 MW. One MW can power roughly 750-1,000 homes depending on usage patterns. Gigawatt (GW) equals 1,000 MW and is used for national or regional capacity measurements. The US has about 1,300 GW of total installed generation capacity.
Megawatt (MW)
A unit of power equal to one million watts, used to measure the capacity of power plants.
Related Terms
Kilowatt-Hour (kWh)
A unit of energy equal to using 1,000 watts for one hour, the standard billing unit for electricity.
Capacity Factor
The ratio of actual electricity output to maximum possible output over a period, measuring plant efficiency.
Base Load
The minimum level of electricity demand over a 24-hour period, typically supplied by always-on power plants.
this entity is one of the U.S. state-level electricity rates and generation mix concepts that recurs across this site. The definition above is the technical answer; the paragraphs below add the practical context for how the concept connects to the the EIA Open Data API and State Electricity Profiles data behind every per-entity page on the site.
In the the EIA Open Data API and State Electricity Profiles data, this concept shapes one or more of the fields that drive the per-entity grades and rankings on this site. The methodology page describes which fields feed into which output; this glossary entry documents the underlying term.
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, 2026.