Petawatts to Megawatts Conversion

The petawatt (PW) is equal to one quadrillion (10¹⁵) watts and can be produced by the current generation of lasers for time-scales on the order of picoseconds (10⁻¹² s). One such laser is the Lawrence Livermore's Nova laser, which achieved a power output of 1.25 PW (1.25×10¹⁵ W) by a process called chirped pulse amplification. The duration of the pulse was roughly 0.5 ps (5×10⁻¹³ s), giving a total energy of 600 J.

conversion table

The megawatt (MW) is equal to one million (10⁶) watts. Many events or machines produce or sustain the conversion of energy on this scale, including large electric motors; large warships such as aircraft carriers, cruisers, and submarines; large server farms or data centers; and some scientific research equipment, such as supercolliders, and the output pulses of very large lasers. A large residential or commercial building may use several megawatts in electric power and heat. On railways, modern high-powered electric locomotives typically have a peak power output of 5 or 6 MW, although some produce much more. The Eurostar, for example, uses more than 12 MW, while heavy diesel-electric locomotives typically produce/use 3 to 5 MW. U.S. nuclear power plants have net summer capacities between about 500 and 1300 MW.

conversion table