About

Energy generation and consumption at an industrial scale require moving beyond the kilowatt. The Kilowatts to Megawatts converter is utilized by grid operators, renewable energy engineers, and infrastructure planners who deal with high-capacity loads. Converting these values accurately is critical for capacity planning and load flow analysis.

One Megawatt represents a significant amount of energy - roughly enough to power hundreds of homes. Misunderstanding the scale difference (factor of 1000) can lead to catastrophic planning errors. This tool provides a clean, comma-separated output to ensure readability and accuracy when handling the large figures typical of power plant output or data center consumption.

Formulas

The conversion is a straightforward decimal shift based on SI metric prefixes.

P_(MW) = P_(kW)1000

Reference Data

Source Type	Capacity (kW)	Capacity (MW)
Large Diesel Generator	1,000 kW	1 MW
Onshore Wind Turbine	2,500 kW	2.5 MW
Offshore Wind Turbine	8,000 kW	8 MW
Small Solar Farm	5,000 kW	5 MW
Gas Peaker Plant	50,000 kW	50 MW
Large Data Center	100,000 kW	100 MW
Coal Power Unit	500,000 kW	500 MW
Nuclear Reactor	1,000,000 kW	1,000 MW
Hydroelectric Dam (Large)	2,000,000 kW	2,000 MW

Frequently Asked Questions

This varies by region and consumption habits, but a general rule of thumb is that 1 MW can power between 400 and 900 homes instantaneously.

MW (Megawatt) is a unit of power (instantaneous rate). MWh (Megawatt-hour) is a unit of energy (amount used over time). This tool converts the power rate (kW to MW), not the total energy.

Generally, when values exceed 1,000 kW, it is cleaner and industry standard to refer to them in MW. For example, a "2.5 MW" turbine is easier to reference than a "2,500 kW" turbine.