Solar Panels On Water Canals Could Generate 13GW of Power For California

The little known Turlock Irrigation District (TID) in California has taken a bold and ambitious step to put solar panels on its open water canals, the first such project in the U.S. Interesting Engineering reports: Encouraged by a $20 million grant from the state, TID has announced Project Nexus that will trial the concept on two canal segments, to begin with. The project is the on-ground realization of a study conducted by researchers at the University of California Merced and University of California Santa Cruz. Published last year, the study used simulations to calculate that California's open canal system could save 63 billion gallons of water every year if it put a lid on top of its canals. The researchers had suggested putting solar panels would help the canals become a hub of renewable energy as they could potentially produce 13 gigawatts of electricity. This is about a sixth of the energy that the state of California generates, TID said in its press release. The solar panels could be installed on top of the canals using suspension cables and the cooling effect of the water running below would also maintain the efficiency of the panels that are known to drop output on very hot days. The 63 billion gallons of water saved could be used to irrigate 50,000 acres of farmland or supply drinking water to as many as two million people.

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