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Energy & Renewables vocabulary · Power Generation and Power Plants

Capacity factor

Meaning in energy & renewables, with examples

nounCommon term

In energy & renewables, capacity factor means: The ratio of the electricity a plant actually produces over a period to what it would produce running at full capacity the whole time, shown as a percentage.

In Turkish: kapasite faktörü, kapasite kullanım oranı

How it is used

Used to compare technologies and judge project economics. Solar farms typically reach about 15 to 25 percent, onshore wind about 25 to 40 percent and nuclear more than 80 percent. A plant achieves or runs at a given capacity factor.

Example sentences

  1. The site's strong winds give it a capacity factor of nearly 40 percent.

  2. A 10 MW plant with a 20 percent capacity factor produces about 17,500 MWh a year.

Common collocations

  • high capacity factor
  • annual capacity factor
  • capacity factor of 35 percent
  • improve the capacity factor
  • installed capacityThe maximum power output that a power plant, or all the plants in a country, can deliver according to their design, usually given in MW or GW.
  • energy yieldThe amount of electricity a solar or wind plant produces, or is expected to produce, over a period, usually a year. It is the basis of revenue forecasts.
  • baseloadThe minimum level of electricity demand that continues day and night, and the power plants that run almost all the time to supply it.
  • generationThe process of producing electricity, or the amount of electricity produced over a period, by power plants, solar panels, wind turbines and other sources.

More terms: Power Generation and Power Plants

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