Quad (unit)

{{Infobox unit

| bgcolor =

| name = quad

| image = Energy Flow US 2016.png

| caption = A Sankey diagram using quads.

| standard =

| quantity = energy

| symbol = quad

| symbol2 =

| symbol3 =

| namedafter =

| extralabel =

| extradata =

| units1 = US customary units

| inunits1 = {{10^|15}} BTU

| units2 = SI

| inunits2 = {{val|1.055|e=18|u=joule}}

| units_imp1 =

| inunits_imp1 =

| units_imp6 =

| inunits_imp6 =

| units_us1 =

| inunits_us1 =

| units_us6 =

| inunits_us6 =

}}

A quad is a unit of energy equal to {{10^|15}} (a short-scale quadrillion) BTU,{{cite web

|url = http://matse1.mse.uiuc.edu/energy/glos.html

|title = Energy: Glossary

|publisher = Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

}} or {{val|1.055|e=18|ul=joule}} (1.055 exajoules or EJ) in SI units.

The unit is used by the U.S. Department of Energy in discussing world and national energy budgets. The global primary energy production in 2022 was 637.8 quad, i.e., 672.9 EJ. {{cite web

|url=https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/ieo/data/pdf/A_A1_r_230822.081459.pdf

|title=World total primary energy consumption by region, Reference case

|author=Energy Information Administration

|author-link=Energy Information Administration

|date=2023-10-31

|work=International Energy Outlook 2023

}}

Conversion

Some common types of an energy carrier approximately equal to 1 quad are:

8,007,000,000 gallons (US) of gasoline
293,071,000,000 kWh
293.07 terawatt-hours (TWh)
33.434 gigawatt-years (GWy)
36,000,000 tonnes of coal
970,434,000,000 cubic feet of natural gas
5,996,000,000 UK gallons of diesel oil
25,200,000 tonnes of oil
252,000,000 tonnes of TNT or five times the energy of the Tsar Bomba nuclear test
12.69 tonnes of uranium-235 (with 83.14 TJ/kg)
6 seconds of sunlight reaching Earth