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July
20, 2023
BY BRITTANY
PETERSON AND SIBI
ARASU
Solar panels on water canals seem
like a no-brainer. So why aren’t they widespread?
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DENVER (AP) — Back in 2015, California’s dry
earth was crunching under a fourth year of drought. Then-Governor
Jerry Brown ordered an unprecedented 25% reduction in home water use.
Farmers, who use the most water, volunteered too to avoid deeper,
mandatory cuts.
Brown also set a goal for the state to get half its energy from
renewable sources, with climate change bearing down.
Yet when Jordan Harris and Robin Raj went knocking on doors with an
idea that addresses both water loss and climate pollution — installing
solar panels over irrigation canals — they couldn’t get anyone to
commit.
Fast forward eight years. With devastating heat,
record-breaking wildfire, looming crisis on the Colorado River, a
growing commitment to fighting climate change, and a little bit of
movement-building, their company Solar AquaGrid is preparing to break
ground on the first solar-covered canal project in the United States.
“All of these coming together at this moment,” Harris said. “Is there
a more pressing issue that we could apply our time to?”
The idea is simple: install solar panels over canals in sunny,
water-scarce regions where they reduce evaporation and make
electricity.
A study by the University of California, Merced gives a boost to the
idea, estimating that 63 billion gallons of water could be saved by
covering California’s 4,000 miles of canals with solar panels that
could also generate 13 gigawatts of power. That’s enough for the
entire city of Los Angeles from January through early October.
But that’s an estimate — neither it, nor other potential benefits have
been tested scientifically. That’s about to change with Project Nexus
in California’s Central Valley.
![](images/images_07_21_2023/pic2%20copy.jpg)
Indian workers give finishing touches to
installed solar panels covering the Narmada canal at Chandrasan
village, outside Ahmadabad, India, April 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Ajit
Solanki, File)
BUILDING MOMENTUM
Solar on canals has long been discussed as a two-for-one solution
in California, where affordable land for energy development is as
scarce as water. But the grand idea was still a hypothetical.
Harris, a former record label executive, co-founded “Rock the Vote,”
the voter registration push in the early 1990s, and Raj organized
socially responsible and sustainability campaigns for businesses. They
knew that people needed a nudge - ideally one from a trusted source.
They thought research from a reputable institution might do the trick,
and got funding for UC Merced to study the impact of
solar-covered-canals in California.
The study’s results have taken off.
They reached Governor Gavin Newsom, who called Wade Crowfoot, his
secretary of natural resources.
“Let’s get this in the ground and see what’s possible,” Crowfoot
recalled the governor saying.
![](images/images_07_21_2023/pic3%20copy.jpg)
Indian laborers work amid installed solar panels atop the Narmada
canal at Chandrasan village, outside Ahmadabad, India, Feb. 16, 2012.
(AP Photo/Ajit Solanki, File)
Around
the same time, the Turlock Irrigation District, an entity that also
provides power, reached out to UC Merced. It was looking to build a
solar project to comply with the state’s increased goal of 100%
renewable energy by 2045. But land was very expensive, so building
atop existing infrastructure was appealing. Then there was the
prospect that shade from panels might reduce weeds growing in the
canals — a problem that costs this utility $1 million annually.
“Until this UC Merced paper came out, we never really saw what those
co-benefits would be,” said Josh Weimer, external affairs manager for
the district. “If somebody was going to pilot this concept, we wanted
to make sure it was us.”
The state committed $20 million in public funds, turning the pilot
into a three-party collaboration among the private, public and
academic sectors. About 1.6 miles (2.6 kilometers) of canals between
20 and 110 feet wide will be covered with solar panels between five
and 15 feet off the ground.
The UC Merced team will study impacts ranging from evaporation to
water quality, said Brandi McKuin, lead researcher on the study.
“We need to get to the heart of those questions before we make any
recommendations about how to do this more widely,” she said.
LESSONS LEARNED ABROAD
California isn’t first with this technology. India pioneered it on one
of the largest irrigation projects in the world. The Sardar Sarovar
dam and canal project brings water to hundreds of thousands of
villages in the dry, arid regions of western India’s Gujarat state.
Then-chief minister of Gujarat state, Narendra Modi, now the country’s
prime minister, inaugurated it in 2012 with much fanfare. Sun Edison,
the engineering firm, promised 19,000 km (11,800 miles) of solar
canals. But only a handful of smaller projects have gone up since. The
firm filed for bankruptcy.
“The capital costs are really high, and maintenance is an issue,” said
Jaydip Parmar an engineer in Gujarat who oversees several small solar
canal projects.
![](images/images_07_21_2023/pic4%20copy.jpg)
A worker washes his hands as installed solar panels are visible atop
the Narmada canal at Chandrasan village, outside of Ahmadabad, India,
Feb. 16, 2012. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)
With
ample arid land, ground-based solar makes more sense there
economically, he said.
Clunky design is another reason the technology hasn’t been widely
adopted in India. The panels in Gujarat’s pilot project sit directly
over the canal, limiting access for maintenance and emergency crews.
Back in California, Harris took note of India’s experience, and began
a search for a better solution. The project there will use better
materials and sit higher.
NEXT STEPS
Project Nexus may not be alone for long. The Gila River Indian Tribe
received funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to install
solar on their canals in an effort to save water to ease stress on the
Colorado River. And one of Arizona’s largest water and power
utilities, the Salt River Project, is studying the technology
alongside Arizona State University.
Still, rapid change isn’t exactly embraced in the world of water
infrastructure, said Representative Jared Huffman, D-Calif.
“It’s an ossified bastion of stodgy old engineers,” he said.
Huffman has been talking up the technology for almost a decade, and
said he finds folks are still far more interested in building taller
dams than what he says is a much more sensible idea.
He pushed a $25 million provision through last year’s Inflation
Reduction Act to fund a pilot project for the Bureau of Reclamation.
Project sites for that one are currently being evaluated.
And a group of more than 100 climate advocacy groups, including the
Center for Biological Diversity and Greenpeace, have now sent a letter
to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and Bureau Commissioner Camille
Touton urging them “to accelerate the widespread deployment of solar
photovoltaic energy systems” above the Bureau’s canals and aqueducts.
Covering all 8,000 miles of Bureau-owned canals and aqueducts could
“generate over 25 gigawatts of renewable energy — enough to power
nearly 20 million homes — and reduce water evaporation by tens of
billions of gallons.”
Covering every canal would be ideal, Huffman said, but starting with
the California Aqueduct and the Delta Mendota canal, “it’s a really
compelling case,” he said. “And it’s about time that we started doing
this.”
___
Arasu reported from Bengaluru, India.
___ The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family
Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is
solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental
coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment
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