Convert Petawatts to Gigawatts

Convert Petawatts (PW) to Gigawatts (GW) instantly and accurately.

Conversion Formula

GW = PW × 1000000

About Petawatts

A petawatt (PW) is 10¹⁵ W. Total solar power intercepted by Earth is ~174 PW. The world's most powerful laser pulses operate at petawatt peak power via chirped pulse amplification (CPA, 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics): China's SULF demonstrated 10 PW in 2019; ELI-NP targets 10 PW. These PW pulses last femtoseconds and create plasma temperatures of billions of kelvin in laboratory targets. Gamma-ray bursts radiate 10²⁴-10²⁷ W at peak - thousands to billions of times the petawatt scale. 1 PW = 10¹⁵ W.

About Gigawatts

A gigawatt (GW) is 10⁹ W - the scale of national grid capacity. UK peak demand is 40-70 GW; France 80-100 GW. Japan's Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear complex totals 8.2 GW. World installed solar PV surpassed 1,000 GW in 2022. The North Sea Link Norway-UK undersea cable carries 1.4 GW. Global data centre consumption exceeds 200 GW. A lightning bolt peaks at ~1 GW for ~30 µs, yielding only ~250 kJ total energy - power is extreme, energy modest. 1 GW = 10⁹ W.

Quick Reference Table

→ Full Power Converter