Some 8,000 miles of federally owned canals snake across the United States, channeling water to replenish crops, fuel hydropower plants and supply drinking water to rural communities. In the future, these narrow waterways could serve an additional role: as hubs of solar energy generation.
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Solar AquaGrid, the University of California Merced, Turlock Irrigation District, and the California Department of Water Resources are winners of the 2023 Gizmodo Science Fair for innovating a way to combine clean energy with water conservation.
Would covering California’s miles of canals with solar panels help save significant amounts of water from evaporation—and generate clean energy in the process?
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Water and power.
It is what drives economic prosperity.
That is why South San Joaquin Irrigation District that has spent the last 113 years securing, developing and protecting water supplies for Manteca Ripon, and Escalon is pursuing a three-prong strategy in a bid to harness the same water to generate lower cost “green” electricity.
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In February pv magazine reported on Project Nexus, which planned to install solar panels over California canals. Now that project is about to move forward with groundbreaking planned for the fall.
The Turlock Irrigation District (TID) is partnering with the Department of Water Resource (DWR), Solar AquaGrid, and the University of California, Merced in the project funded by the State of California. The project will include energy storage to study how storage facilities can support the local electric grid when solar generation is lowered due to cloud cover.
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CENTRAL VALLEY, Calif. - A pilot project has been funded to cover some of California's irrigation canals with solar panels.
The Turlock Irrigation District's "Project Nexus" is designed to as an "innovative, multi-benefit, water-energy nexus project that can further California's push toward water and climate resiliency.
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