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Three major projects in those states will cover water reclamation facilities with solar panels, offering joint benefits for energy production and water conservation.
Three projects in California, Utah and Oregon will soon integrate solar panels into waterways, thanks to federal funding from the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) , which allocated $25 million to photovoltaic installations located along to water recovery facilities.
The three projects will receive a total of $19.5 million in funding for the projects, administered by the Bureau of Reclamation, an agency that addresses water and energy management challenges in the western United States.
This IRA exemption was created with input from California Representative Jared Huffman. The program aims to study the water efficiency that would be obtained by covering the canals with solar panels.
Canal solar is a use case for photovoltaics that is expected to provide significant co-benefits for each technology. The panels shade water resources, reducing losses through evaporation. In turn, the water cools the solar panels, reducing the operating temperature, which improves the efficiency of the panels and slows the degradation of the equipment.
“Deploying solar panels on our canal systems is a smart solution to our growing water and energy dilemmas: it leverages clean energy technology to increase efficiency, while reducing our carbon footprint and water loss through evaporation in the channels,” Huffman stated.
The largest of the three projects, located in California, received $15 million through the fund. The San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority will install floating solar panels on the Delta-Mendota canal. The University of California-Merced will study the project through a public-private partnership.
Researchers will deploy up to three different floating solar technologies to evaluate the feasibility, costs and benefits of floating solar on canals. The program will validate moving water photovoltaic designs and study the operational and design challenges associated with this new use case.
A 2021 study by the University of California, Merced and the University of Santa Cruz showed that covering Californias approximately 6,000 kilometers of public water system infrastructure with solar panels can generate 13 GW of energy per year, which It is equivalent to approximately one-sixth of the states installed capacity and half of the planned new capacity needed to meet the states goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030.
The study estimates that 239 billion liters of water could be saved annually by covering canals, enough to irrigate 20,000 hectares of cropland or meet the water needs of more than 2 million residents.
The other two pilot projects are in Oregon and Utah. A $2.55 million project in Oregon will float solar panels on the Deschutes Projects main channel near the town of Bend.
In Utah, $1.5 million is earmarked for a project on the Layton Canal near the town of West Haven. The five-year demonstration project will collect data on the technical capabilities and economic feasibility of large-scale solar channel deployment.
In addition to improving photovoltaic performance and reducing evaporation, canal solar is expected to minimize canal maintenance by reducing aquatic plant growth, generate land use savings and preserve agricultural land, and reduce energy and carbon footprint of water recovery facilities.
Through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, the Bureau of Reclamation is also investing $8.3 billion over five years for water infrastructure projects, including rural water, water storage, conservation and transportation, nature-based solutions, dams, water purification and reuse, and desalination. |
