A megawatt is a unit of electrical power equal to one million watts. Power plants, wind farms, and solar arrays generate electricity measured in megawatts. A single megawatt can power roughly 750 to 1,000 American homes, depending on the season and how much electricity people are using.

The word breaks down simply: mega means million, and watt is the basic unit of power named after James Watt, the Scottish inventor who improved the steam engine. A reading lamp might use 60 watts, your microwave might use 1,000 watts (also called one kilowatt), and a large power plant might generate 1,000 megawatts or more.

When you hear that a new solar farm will generate 50 megawatts, you can picture it powering about 40,000 homes. When a city announces it needs 200 megawatts during a summer heat wave, you know that millions of air conditioners are running at once. Understanding megawatts helps you grasp the enormous scale of the electrical grid that powers modern life, from the generators at Hoover Dam to the wind turbines dotting the Great Plains.