Low-cost Solar Power That Increases the Supply of Fresh Water

Solar panels over 115-foot-wide canal in Hickman, CA (SFGate)

Three years ago we posted about a creative concept for green energy production:

Putting solar panels over California's aqueducts will reduce evaporation and generate green energy.

The California Department of Water Resources is funding the $20 million pilot program with the intention of learning where solar panels might be viable along the state’s 4,000 miles of canals and aqueducts.

In 2025 the program has begun implementation: [bold added]

Near Hickman, California, just outside Modesto, a 110-foot-wide grid of solar panels now tops a section of canal, arching over the gently flowing water. Solar projects have long been a crucial piece of the state’s movement to clean energy, and these panels are part of a new project that’s hoping to do far more than just generate electricity. Dubbed Project Nexus, the $20 million state-funded initiative hopes to better understand whether these installations can be an even more efficient approach to solar energy.

The waterways already irrigate much of the state’s crops, but now they will also cool the solar panels, just by nature of being underneath them, increasing the panels’ efficiency. Meanwhile, the panels will shade the canals, reducing evaporation and suppressing aquatic weeds. Between this installation and a 20-foot-wide section that was completed on another part of the canal in March, the project could generate a total energy output of 1.6 megawatts while producing a host of other benefits.

We seem to have lost the societal vigor to replicate the vast infrastructure projects of the 20th century--the dams, aqueducts, highways, power generation and transportation systems--that elevated the standard of living for every American. However, nothing should stop us from the more modest ambition of improving sections of that infrastructure when opportunities present themselves.