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Solar Panels

Solar Panels Will Cut Water Loss from Canals in Gila River Indian Community

in Environment/Business & Economy

In a move that may soon be replicated elsewhere, the Gila River Indian Community recently signed an agreement with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to put solar panels over a stretch of irrigation canal on its land south of Phoenix.

It will be the first project of its kind in the United States to actually break ground, according to the tribe’s press release.

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Solar Panels on Water Canals Seem Like a No-Brainer. So Why Aren’t They Widespread?

in Environment/Business & Economy

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.

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Solar Panels over California’s Canals Could Save Water While Making Clean Energy

in Environment

Solar AquaGrid, the University of California Merced, Turlock Irrigation District, and the California Department of Water Resources are winners of the 2023 Gizmodo Science Fair for innovating a way to combine clean energy with water conservation.

The Question

Would covering California’s miles of canals with solar panels help save significant amounts of water from evaporation—and generate clean energy in the process?

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Solar on Canals Moves Closer to Reality

in Environment/Government & Elections

In February pv magazine reported on Project Nexus, which planned to install solar panels over California canals. Now that project is about to move forward with groundbreaking planned for the fall.

The Turlock Irrigation District (TID) is partnering with the Department of Water Resource (DWR), Solar AquaGrid, and the University of California, Merced in the project funded by the State of California. The project will include energy storage to study how storage facilities can support the local electric grid when solar generation is lowered due to cloud cover.

Continue reading on pv magazine USA

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Pilot Project Will Cover Central Valley Canals with Solar Panels

in Environment

CENTRAL VALLEY, Calif. – A pilot project has been funded to cover some of California’s irrigation canals with solar panels.

The Turlock Irrigation District’s “Project Nexus” is designed to as an “innovative, multi-benefit, water-energy nexus project that can further California’s push toward water and climate resiliency.

Continue reading on Action News Now

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Target’s New Store Design Powered by Solar Energy Could Be the Sustainable Shop of the Future

in Environment/Business & Economy

Target has transformed one of its California stores into its most sustainable store yet.

Powered mostly by solar energy, the new exterior design at its Vista, Calif. location is the latest innovation for the Minneapolis-based company as its moves further into executing its sustainability strategy.

The store, which is about 40 miles north of San Diego, now boasts 3,420 solar panels across its roof and newly installed carport canopies. Target said that its new design will generate more renewable energy than it needs annually to operate and will test multiple innovations to reduce the building’s emissions. The retailer said it expects to produce up to a 10% energy surplus each year from this design and will transmit it back to the local power grid.

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Pilot Project to Test the Benefits and Problems of Solar Panels Covering Canals

in Environment/Business & Economy

Stretches of irrigation canals in Central California are about to get a bit of a facelift.

“We serve 150,000 acres with irrigation,” Josh Weimer, the external affairs manager with Turlock Irrigation District, said.

Weimer is part of a first-in-the-nation project that’s coming to life.

“We already own these 250 miles of canals, so the idea of using existing land that we own to minimize the cost of the overall project is something we’re very interested in,” he said.

“We expected that the benefits would be water savings by reducing evaporation and renewable energy produced, but there are other benefits,” Brandi McKuin, a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, Santa Cruz, said. She and her team said they have scientific proof of the benefits to us all.

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