# The acronym fluency test: speaking the sector's shorthand
A developer says her project is "1.2 gigawatts" and a banker asks "nameplate or effective?" Nobody answers right away. That three-second silence, in a room full of people with engineering degrees and finance MBAs, is the most common moment in energy meetings worldwide. The sector runs on shorthand, and half the people in any given room only know half of it.
This lesson gives you the vocabulary that separates fluent participants from people nodding along.
MW (megawatt) measures power: the rate of energy delivery at an instant. Think of it as speed.
MWh (megawatt-hour) measures energy: power sustained over time. Think of it as distance traveled.
A 100 MW solar farm does not produce 100 MW around the clock. It produces close to 100 MW at solar noon and zero at night. Over a year it might generate around 200,000 MWh, roughly.
This is where capacity factor comes in: the ratio of actual energy produced to what the plant would produce if it ran at full nameplate capacity 100% of the time.
Worked example:
A 100 MW solar plant, running at a 23% capacity factor (a reasonable estimate for utility-scale solar in the US Southwest):
100 MW x 8,760 hours/year x 0.23 = 201,480 MWh/year
Compare that to a nuclear plant with a 92% capacity factor (typical for US nuclear fleets, per
100 MW x 8,760 x 0.92 = 805,920 MWh/year
Same nameplate capacity, four times the output. This one distinction explains most confusion in renewables coverage: headlines love MW because it sounds big; investors care about MWh because that's what gets sold.
LCOE (Levelized Cost of Energy) is the average cost per MWh of building and running a power plant over its lifetime, spreading upfront capital cost, financing, fuel, and maintenance across total expected output.
It lets you compare wildly different technologies (a gas plant burning fuel for 30 years vs. a wind farm with near-zero fuel cost) on one axis: dollars or euros per MWh.
As of recent estimates (Lazard's annual LCOE analysis, a widely cited free benchmark, available here), unsubsidized utility-scale solar and onshore wind in the US land in the roughly $25 to $60/MWh range, while new combined-cycle gas plants run higher, and new nuclear is substantially more expensive per MWh, often exceeding $140/MWh. These numbers shift yearly with interest rates and equipment costs, so treat them as orientation, not precision.
Caveat professionals must know: LCOE ignores when energy is delivered. Solar's LCOE looks great, but a MWh at 2pm is worth less than a MWh at 7pm when demand peaks. This gap is why analysts increasingly cite LCOE plus storage or value-adjusted LCOE.
A PPA (Power Purchase Agreement) is a long-term contract where a buyer (a utility, a corporation like Amazon or Google, or a government) agrees to buy electricity from a generator at a fixed or formula-based price, often for 10 to 20 years.
Why it matters: lenders will not finance a $300 million wind farm on the hope of selling power at fluctuating market prices. A signed PPA converts an uncertain revenue stream into something a bank can underwrite. No PPA, usually no project.
Corporate PPAs have exploded. Large tech companies are now among the biggest single buyers of renewable energy contracts in the US and Europe, a structural shift from utilities being the only counterparty that existed a decade ago.
ISO (Independent System Operator) and RTO (Regional Transmission Organization) are entities that manage the electric grid and wholesale power markets across a region, independent of any single utility, matching supply to demand second by second.
In the US, examples include PJM Interconnection (serving roughly 65 million people across 13 mid-Atlantic and Midwest states), ERCOT (Texas, notably operating largely outside federal jurisdiction), CAISO (California), and MISO (Midwest).
Europe's equivalent structure works differently. ENTSO-E (European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity) coordinates national TSOs (Transmission System Operators) like Germany's Amprion or France's RTE, across a more fragmented, country-by-country regulatory picture overseen by ACER (EU Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators).
Knowing which entity governs a given market tells you immediately how power gets priced and dispatched there, basic due diligence before evaluating any project or deal.
Heat rate measures how much fuel energy (in BTUs) a power plant needs to generate one kWh of electricity. Lower heat rate means higher efficiency.
A typical US natural gas combined-cycle plant might have a heat rate around 6,400 BTU/kWh (estimate), while an older coal plant might sit above 10,000 BTU/kWh. This one number explains why utilities retire coal plants before efficient gas plants: the coal plant burns nearly 60% more fuel to produce the same electricity.
Knowledge check
1. A developer says a project is '1.2 gigawatts.' Why would a financially sophisticated listener immediately ask 'nameplate or effective?'
2. Why do headlines about power plants tend to emphasize MW while investors focus on MWh?
3. Two power plants both have 100 MW nameplate capacity, but one has a capacity factor of 23% and the other 92%. What does this difference primarily tell you?
4. Select ALL correct answers about the relationship between MW and MWh.
Select all the correct answers.
5. Select ALL correct answers about why capacity factor is an important concept in evaluating power plants.
Select all the correct answers.
As of recent-year estimates:
These figures are estimates and shift with each annual data release; treat exact digits as directional.
When evaluating any energy asset or claim, run these checks:
1. Nameplate vs. capacity factor: never trust a MW figure alone; ask for expected annual MWh.
2. PPA status and counterparty: is revenue contracted, and is the buyer creditworthy?
3. Interconnection queue position: in the US, projects often wait years for grid connection approval from the relevant ISO/RTO, a bigger bottleneck than most people realize.
4. Which market/regulator governs it: ERCOT behaves nothing like PJM; German rules differ from French ones.
5. LCOE basis and date: ask whether a quoted LCOE includes subsidies (like the US Inflation Reduction Act's tax credits) or is unsubsidized.
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