How strong is a petawatt?

Answer 1

The standard prefix "peta..." has been adopted to signify a factor of 1015 .

So "one peta-something" is 1015 of them, or one million billion of them.

One petawatt is a rate of energy flow corresponding to 1015 joules per second. As you

correctly surmised, that's a rather high rate of moving or dissipating energy.

Exelon Corporation's Braidwood Generating Station, about 60 miles southwest of Chicago,

is a nuclear power station that supplies a major part of the electrical power consumed

in Chicago and the surrounding neighborhood.

Braidwood's two pressurized water nuclear reactors began commercial operation in 1988.

Together, with their pedals to the metal and flat-out wide open, they can generate

2,360 net megawatts of electric power.

One petawatt is the equivalent of 423,729 Braidwoods.

That's a lot of power.