Some 8,000 miles of federally owned canals snake across the United States, channeling water to replenish crops, fuel hydropower plants and supply drinking water to rural communities. In the future, these narrow waterways could serve an additional role: as hubs of solar energy generation.
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Water and power.
It is what drives economic prosperity.
That is why South San Joaquin Irrigation District that has spent the last 113 years securing, developing and protecting water supplies for Manteca Ripon, and Escalon is pursuing a three-prong strategy in a bid to harness the same water to generate lower cost “green” electricity.
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Renewable electricity met 100% of California's electricity demand for the first time ever on Saturday, most of it from large amounts of solar power now produced along Interstate 10, an hour east of the Coachella Valley.
While partygoers celebrated in the blazing sunshine at the Stagecoach music festival, energy demand statewide hit 18,672 megawatts at 2:45 p.m. local time, and 37,172 megawatts were available to meet it. Of that, 101% of the power provided came from renewables, according to a continuous tracker provided by California Independent System Operator, or CAISO, a nonprofit that oversees the state's bulk electric power system and transmission lines.
Two thirds of the 18,000 megawatts needed was provided by solar power loaded into the energy grid — or 12,391 megawatts. The milestone lasted almost 15 minutes before edging back down to about 97% renewables.
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