Megawatts to Kilowatts: Power Unit Conversions for Solar and Storage
MW to kW is a factor of 1,000 - but the same three letters appear on a solar farm, a generator nameplate and a battery datasheet. Here is the conversion table and where each unit is used.
One megawatt is 1,000 kilowatts. Converting between them is multiplication or division by a thousand, and nothing else in this page changes that. What causes errors is not the maths - it is that a solar developer, a generator nameplate and a battery datasheet all use kW or MW to mean slightly different things, and a factor of 1,000 hides the difference until someone is off by three orders of magnitude.
| From | To | Multiply by | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Megawatts (MW) | Kilowatts (kW) | 1,000 | 2.5 MW = 2,500 kW |
| Kilowatts (kW) | Watts (W) | 1,000 | 7.6 kW = 7,600 W |
| Megawatts (MW) | Watts (W) | 1,000,000 | 1 MW = 1,000,000 W |
| Kilowatts (kW) | Megawatts (MW) | 0.001 | 500 kW = 0.5 MW |
| Watts (W) | Kilowatts (kW) | 0.001 | 3,000 W = 3 kW |
| Milliwatts (mW) | Watts (W) | 0.001 | 250 mW = 0.25 W |
| Kilowatts (kW) | Metric horsepower (PS) | 1.3596 | 1 kW ≈ 1.36 PS |
- Watts and kW - residential and light commercial equipment: a 7.6 kW inverter, a 22 kW standby generator, a 5 kW charge controller. The nameplate figure is usually the rated output, not the input.
- MW - utility-scale solar farms, grid interconnection queues and commercial PPAs. A 100 MW solar farm is 100,000 kW, which is roughly 250,000 average homes' worth of capacity at a 25% capacity factor.
- mW - milliwatts are electronics, not power systems. A 250 mW sensor is 0.00025 kW; the units are three orders of magnitude apart and confusing them is a common spreadsheet error.
One refinement worth holding onto: kW is a rate of power, while kWh is a quantity of energy. A 5 kW array running at full output for one hour produces 5 kWh. For battery sizing and daily energy the kWh figure is the one that matters - see 48V vs high-voltage battery architecture and commercial BESS sizing.
- Reading a generator's standby rating as its running rating. A unit marketed as 26 kW may carry a lower continuous rating on natural gas. The unit is kW either way - the number changes with fuel, not with units.
- Treating kW and kVA as the same number. They are equal only at unity power factor. Convert with kW = kVA × power factor, and use the kVA figure for conductor and transformer sizing.
- Mixing up kW and kWh. A 10 kWh battery is not a 10 kW battery. The first is stored energy, the second is instantaneous power - and a battery datasheet usually quotes both, with the power rating being the smaller number more often than people expect.
-
1
Identify which unit the source states
kW, kVA and kWh are not interchangeable. Read the unit, not just the number.
-
2
Check whether it is input or output
A 5 kW inverter draws more than 5 kW of DC at full output; a generator nameplate is usually output.
-
3
Convert to the unit the decision needs
Conductor and transformer decisions want kVA; energy decisions want kWh; equipment matching wants kW.
-
4
Sanity-check the order of magnitude
If a residential rooftop job lands in MW, or a utility job lands in kW, the conversion went the wrong way.
How many kilowatts are in a megawatt?
How many kW is a 5 MW solar farm?
Is kW the same as kWh?
Is kW the same as kVA?
How many megawatts is 250 kW?
Size solar, storage and generator capacity with real numbers
Get trade pricing, freight quotes, and portal calculators.
Register Now