Next year starts an ambitious solar panel project that if successful could see thousands of miles of panels installed above California’s irrigation canals. The plan, dubbed Project Nexus, is expected to break ground in 2023 and become operational in 2024, bringing 8,500 feet of solar panels to Turlock's canals in the Central Valley. One study from researchers at the University of California at Merced, a partner on the project, suggests that the panels could not only generate substantial power if scaled up but also alleviate some drought concerns by preventing some water loss.
Experts I’ve spoken with about the drought in the West believe that so-called solar canals are not the end-all be-all for conservation and certainly won’t prevent aridification from continuing. The project does address important environmental goals, such as California’s net-zero promise to reach zero emissions by 2045. Researchers believe that were solar canals to encompass the entire 4,000 miles of canals and aqueducts spanning the state, those panels would be able to generate 13 gigawatts of power.
That amount of energy would meet the power demands of at least one-sixth of the state—more than doubling the current amount of California solar power generation. The rosiest estimate for water conserved from solar canals suggests that an entire system of them across the state could save 63 billion gallons of water (around 193,000 acre-feet) annually, which the Turlock Irrigation Department breaks down as “enough to irrigate 50,000 acres of farmland or meet the residential water needs of more than 2 million people.”
This wouldn’t substantially boost California’s water supply as the state has the ability to store more than 40 million acre-feet of water, but it’s certainly a good start. The launch of this $20 million project, which will bring nearly 2 miles’ worth of solar panels to the Central Valley, is an important step in testing an emerging technology the country could soon adopt even more widely than in just one state. The Inflation Reduction Act includes an allocation of $25 million for solar canal projects.
Experts I’ve spoken with about the drought in the West believe that so-called solar canals are not the end-all be-all for conservation and certainly won’t prevent aridification from continuing. The project does address important environmental goals, such as California’s net-zero promise to reach zero emissions by 2045. Researchers believe that were solar canals to encompass the entire 4,000 miles of canals and aqueducts spanning the state, those panels would be able to generate 13 gigawatts of power.
That amount of energy would meet the power demands of at least one-sixth of the state—more than doubling the current amount of California solar power generation. The rosiest estimate for water conserved from solar canals suggests that an entire system of them across the state could save 63 billion gallons of water (around 193,000 acre-feet) annually, which the Turlock Irrigation Department breaks down as “enough to irrigate 50,000 acres of farmland or meet the residential water needs of more than 2 million people.”
This wouldn’t substantially boost California’s water supply as the state has the ability to store more than 40 million acre-feet of water, but it’s certainly a good start. The launch of this $20 million project, which will bring nearly 2 miles’ worth of solar panels to the Central Valley, is an important step in testing an emerging technology the country could soon adopt even more widely than in just one state. The Inflation Reduction Act includes an allocation of $25 million for solar canal projects.