gigawatt-year

plural gigawatt-years

1. A unit of energy equal to that provided by one gigawatt of power acting for one year (31·536 × 10¹⁵ joules).

   Holonyms: exajoule (1.000e18 J) < petawatt-hour (3.600e18 J) < terawatt-year (31.536e18 J)

   2 more examples

   Meronyms: kilojoule (1.000e3 J) < watt-hour (3.600e3 J) < milliwatt-year (31.536e3 J) < megajoule (1.000e6 J) < kilowatt-hour (3.600e6 J) < watt-year (31.536e6 J) < gigajoule (1.000e9 J) < megawatt-hour (3.600e9 J) < kilowatt-year (31.536e9 J) < terajoule (1.000e12 J) < gigawatt-hour (3.600e12 J) < megawatt-year (31.536e12 J) < petajoule (1.000e15 J) < terawatt-hour (3.600e15 J)

   The output of a large electric power station may be a million kilowatts—which is called a gigawatt (GW)—and the total amount of electricity produced in a year may be put in thousands of gigawatt hours or in gigawatt years (GWy). A gigawatt year of electricity (GWye) will be worth £200 or £300 million.

   1989 [1985], John H. Fremlin, Power Production: What are the Risks?, Adam Hilger, →ISBN, page 72