In an attempt to help save California from the current drought issues, some engineers and scientists believe that by covering their irrigation canals with solar panels might just do the trick. Moreover, they also think that it could possibly meet the entire state’s commitments of renewable energy.
One pilot and proof of concept project called Project Nexus in the Turlock Irrigation District will cover a mile-long stretch of canal with five megawatts worth of solar panels. The hope is to ‘demonstrate increased renewable power generation, water quality improvements, reduced vegetative growth in the canals, and reduced water evaporation.’
The idea behind the project is based on a 2021 University of California Merced and UC Santa Cruz research team study. It estimated that by covering the state’s canals with the panels could possibly prevent the loss of 65 billion gallons of fresh water via evaporation.
Turlock was the first irrigation district in California, formed back in 1887, providing irrigation water to 4,700 growers who farm around 150,000 acres in the San Joaquin Valley. The project is scheduled to break ground this year, and said to finish up by the year 2024.
Another report from Good News Network back in 2021 explained that this concept had already proven to work in Gujarat, which is an Indian state. Because of the cooler temperatures, the moisture below the panels helped cool them down, which resulted in ‘small but significant’ increases in generating power.
One of the authors of the UC Merced paper, Roger Bales, debated in the Smithsonian Magazine how covering the California canals with panels for thousands of miles could possibly generate 13 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity. This is just half of what the state requires to completely decarbonize by its self-imposed 2045 deadline.
Bales wrote, “California grows food for an ever-increasing global population and produces more than 50 percent of the fruits, nuts and vegetables that U.S. consumers eat. Building these [canal] solar arrays could prevent more than 80,000 acres of farmland or natural habitat from being converted for solar farms.”
Aside from Project Nexus, Bales also adds that there are other projects in the making, considering how much sense the project makes on every level. And after seeing how successful it is, hopefully more countries with the same circumstances will follow suit.
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