Megawatt-hour (MWh)
A unit of energy equal to 1,000 kWh or 3.6 GJ; the standard unit for wholesale electricity prices and utility-scale generation and storage.
The megawatt-hour equals one megawatt sustained for one hour, or one thousand kilowatt-hours. Wholesale power markets, PPAs, LCOE estimates and grid-scale battery capacities are normally quoted in MWh or in currency per MWh.
1 MWh = 0.08598 toe; 1 toe = 11.63 MWh
Price conversion: 1 EUR/MWh = 0.1 cent/kWh
Example: 85 EUR/MWh = 8.5 cents/kWh = 0.085 EUR/kWh
Typical magnitudes:
- A 5 MW onshore wind turbine at 30% capacity factor: about 13,100 MWh/year
- A 100 MW / 400 MWh BESS stores 400 MWh
- A 1 GW nuclear unit at 90%: about 7.9 million MWh (7.9 TWh) per year
- Annual electricity use of about 300 EU households or 100 US households: roughly 1,000 MWh
Prices: European day-ahead prices averaged roughly 60–100 EUR/MWh in 2024 in most markets, after 2022 peaks above 200–300 EUR/MWh; utility-scale solar and onshore wind LCOE ranges were roughly 30–70 USD/MWh in favourable sites (IRENA, Lazard 2024). Gas is often priced per MWh too, so a 35 EUR/MWh gas price at 55% plant efficiency implies about 64 EUR/MWh electricity fuel cost.
Related terms
All terms →- Kilowatt-hour (kWh)
A unit of energy equal to one kilowatt of power sustained for one hour, or 3.6 megajoules; the standard billing unit for electricity.
- Terawatt-hour (TWh)
A unit of energy equal to one billion kWh (10⁹ kWh) or 3.6 PJ; used for national and global electricity generation and consumption.
- Watt (W)
The SI unit of power, equal to one joule per second; it measures the rate at which energy is produced, transferred or used.
- LCOE (Levelized Cost of Electricity)
The constant price per MWh that recovers all lifetime costs of a power plant, discounted to present value, divided by its discounted lifetime output.
- Day-ahead market
A wholesale electricity auction held the day before delivery that sets hourly or quarter-hourly prices and schedules for the following day.
- Power vs energy (kW vs kWh)
Power (kW) is the rate of energy flow at an instant; energy (kWh) is power accumulated over time. Capacity is measured in power, output in energy.