Glossary:Terawatt hours (TWh) (2024)

FAQs

Glossary:Terawatt hours (TWh)? ›

Terawatt hours, abbreviated as TWh, is a unit of energy representing one trillion watt hours. A kilowatt hour is equivalent to a steady power of one kilowatt running for one hour and is equivalent to 3.6 million joules or 3.6 megajoules.

A terawatt-hour (TWh) is a unit of energy that is equal to 10 raised to the power of 12 watt-hours. It is also equal to 1,000,000 megawatt-hours (MWh) or 1,000,000,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh). Terawatt-hours are used in measuring quantities of electricity or heat produced.

Definition 1. Terawatt hour (TWh)is a unit of energy used for expressing the amount of produced energy, electricity and heat. 1 TWh = 1,000 GWh = 1,000,000 MWh = 1,000,000 000 kWh; 1 TJ = 0.278 GWh.

Other common measurements are gigawatt-hours (1000 megawatt-hours), terawatt-hours (1000 gigawatt-hours), and petawatt-hours (1000 terawatt-hours).

A watt-hour is the amount of energy produced by a one-watt source running for one hour. A megawatt-hour (MWh) is one million Wh or 1000 kWh, a gigawatt-hour (GWh) is 1,000 MWh, and a terawatt-hour (TWh) is one trillion Wh, or 1,000 GWh.

1 terawatt-hour is enough power to: Cool 500,000 homes for a full year. Light over 1 million homes for a year. Fully power 70,000 homes for a year.

Terawatt hours, abbreviated as TWh, is a unit of energy representing one trillion watt hours. A kilowatt hour is equivalent to a steady power of one kilowatt running for one hour and is equivalent to 3.6 million joules or 3.6 megajoules.

A terawatt-hour is a unit of energy equal to outputting one trillion watts for one hour. It is equal to 3.6x10¹⁵ Joules.

Electricity consumption in the United States totaled 4,000 terawatt-hours in 2023, one of the highest values in the period under consideration. Figures represent energy end use, which is the sum of retail sales and direct use of electricity by the producing entity.

To understand just how large gigawatts are, 1 GW is equal to the power of approximately 1.3 million horses, 9,090 car engines, almost 2.5 million solar panels, 310 utility-scale wind turbines and 100 million LED bulbs. Finally, the terawatt (TW) is equal to 1,000 GW.

How many homes can 1 GWh power? ›

For those who are looking for more power, how's this: One gigawatt is equivalent to 1.3 million horsepower. Here's a more practical measurement, though: One gigawatt is enough energy to power about 750,000 homes.

So scientists invented the 'megawatt' to represent one million watts. The magnitudes of watts step up exponentially after that. A 'gigawatt' represents a billion watts, while a 'terawatt' is one trillion. Finally, a 'petawatt' is a quadtrillion watts – or (10¹⁵ watts).

One terawatt is equal to 1000000 megawatts or 1000 gigawatts – it's useful for conceptualizing how much energy is being used worldwide.

One terawatt is equal to 1,000,000,000,000 watts.

Many of the lightbulbs in our homes consume 100 watts of energy. One terawatt could power about 10 billion 100-watt lightbulbs at the same time [source: Steacie Institute for Molecular Sciences].

To give you an idea, 1 Terawatt can power 10 billion, 100 watt bulbs at the same time!