GUIDE · UNITS

Understanding energy units

MW, MWh, GWh, Mtoe and €/kgoe do not measure the same thing. Here is how to read them correctly.

1 MW × 1 h = 1 MWh 1 MWh = 1 000 kWh · 1 GWh = 1 000 MWh · 1 TWh = 1 000 GWh

MW and MWh: power is not energy

A watt measures instantaneous power. A watt-hour measures a quantity of energy over time. A 1 MW installation running at full power for one hour produces 1 MWh.

kWh, MWh, GWh and TWh: changing scale

Prefixes only change the order of magnitude. 1 MWh = 1,000 kWh; 1 GWh = 1,000 MWh; 1 TWh = 1,000 GWh. EnergyBoard mainly uses GWh for annual national generation.

toe, kgoe and Mtoe: comparing different forms of energy

Oil equivalent converts different forms of energy into a common unit. 1 toe = 1,000 kgoe. By convention, 1 toe is about 11.63 MWh, so 1 Mtoe is about 11.63 TWh.

1 toe1 000 kgoe
1 toe≈ 11,63 MWh
1 Mtoe≈ 11,63 TWh

€/kWh and €/kgoe measure different things

€/kWh is an energy price. €/kgoe is used on EnergyBoard for energy productivity: economic value generated for each kilogram of oil equivalent of energy used.

% and percentage points

A move from 20% to 25% is +5 percentage points, but a 25% relative increase. EnergyBoard uses “pt” for direct differences between percentages.

How to read key EnergyBoard pages

Solar capacity: 25,000 MW

Installed power, not the amount of electricity generated over the year.

Electricity generation: 550,000 GWh

A quantity of energy generated over a year.

Final consumption: 900 Mtoe

A large energy aggregate allowing country and EU-wide consumption to be compared.

Energy productivity: €10/kgoe

Roughly €10 of economic value is produced for each kgoe accounted for by the indicator.

→ See all definitions in the glossary