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gigawatt

gigawatt

10 4.2
A unit of power equal to one billion watts
  • noun
  • /ˈɡɪɡəˌwɑt/
  • Specialized
translation icon : gigavatio
  • During that period, India will add an additional 70 gigawatts through more than 46 plants.
  • gigawatt-hours
  • gigawatt power
  • gigawatts of electricity

The entire global Internet takes gigawatts of power to run.

Examples

  • By proper code, you could help to save gigawatt hours of energy.

    Blog text (3)
  • In 2002, a top industry analyst predicted an additional 1 gigawatt annual market by 2010.

    Blog text (10)
  • The entire global Internet takes gigawatts of power to run.

  • After all, the entire continent of Africa currently produces a mere one gigawatt of electricity.

    Blog text (5)
  • Wind power produced 200 gigawatts in 2010, an investment of approximately $400 billion.

    Blog text (10)
  • Meeting the demand, EPRI said, will require an effort equivalent to opening a 1-gigawatt power plant every two days for the next 50 years.

    Academic text (2001)
  • President Obama recently set a basic goal of increasing CHP by 40 gigawatts by 2020.

    Blog text (9)
  • Utilities plan to add 40 more gigawatts of clean energy generation by 2030, due mainly to state mandates.

    Blog text (31)
  • According to the authors, the wave action of oceans delivers 2,700 gigawatts of power, and the power available for use totals about 500 GW.

    Academic text (2009)
  • The new solar farm will generate up to 5 gigawatts of electricity annually.

How Powerful

gigawatt
  • Specialized
10 4.2
megawatt
  • Specialized
20 3.9
kilowatt
  • Specialized
16 3.2
H.P.
  • Specialized
3.9
watt
  • Specialized
106 2.9

Surface Forms

gigawatt singular
gigawatts plural

Morphology

gigawatt = watt (semi-transparent) = giga + watt

Built by the productive SI prefix 'giga-' (billion) applied to 'watt'; learners familiar with SI prefixes will find this transparent, but many B1 learners may not know the numeric value of 'giga-'.

Etymology

Gigawatt comes from giga (a part that means 'giant' or 'a billion') and watt, the unit named after James Watt and the same 'watt' you see on light bulbs. So a gigawatt is a very large unit of power, one billion watts, and we use it to talk about the output of big power plants.