Megajoules to Megawatt-hours conversion

What is megajoules?

A "megajoule" (MJ) is a unit of energy, and it's a big one!

One joule (J) is the amount of energy required to accelerate an object of mass 1 kilogram by a speed of 1 meter per second. It's a small but fundamental unit of measurement.

Now, let's talk about megajoules:

• One megajoule (MJ) is equal to one million joules.
• In other words, it's one million times more energy than a single joule.
• To put this into perspective:
  • The average human walking pace releases about 60 MJ of energy per hour.
  • The kinetic energy of a car traveling at highway speed (about 30 meters per second) is around 5000-6000 MJ.
  • A commercial jet engine produces around 1,000 to 2,000 MJ of thrust per minute.

Megajoules are commonly used in various fields:

• Energy production and consumption: megajoules are often used to express the energy output or consumption rate of power plants, vehicles, or industrial processes.
• Physics and engineering: megajoules can represent the kinetic energy of moving objects, like spacecraft or large machinery.
• Climate science: megajoules are used to quantify the energy associated with greenhouse gas emissions from human activities.

In summary, a megajoule is an enormous unit of energy, representing one million times more power than a single joule. Its usage can be found in various scientific and technical contexts.

What is megawatt-hours?

A Megawatt-hour is a unit of energy and its units, MWh, are formed with W for watt and h for hour from SI unit system combined with letter M, metric prefix, for 1,000,000 or $10^6$. Its definition, in the context of electricity, is the energy of one watt power flowing for one hour.

Followings equivalent equations are identical but in different units. Please note that factor $10^6$ is representing Mega prefix in MWh unit.

$$1 MWh = 10^6*Pt = 10^6*IVt = 3600 * 10^6*J = 2.247 * 10^{22} * 10^6 eV = 8.598*10^5 * 10^6 cal$$

$P - Power$
$t - Time \text{ (in hours. Multiply by 3600 to convert to seconds)}$
$I - Current$ $V - Volts$
$J - Joules$
$eV - Electronvolt$
$cal - Calories$

Wikipedia page for Kilowatt-hour (watt-hour redirected to kWh) UCI article on Energy Units and Conversions Ian Woofenden's explanation on difference between Watts and Watt-Hours