TURLOCK, Calif. (KGO) — A climate innovation we first told you about here on ABC7 News is up and running.
It’s California’s first solar-covered water canal. The advantages it offers could fast track the future of solar power.
From the air, you could mistake it for the world’s largest beach umbrella. But this solar canopy near Turlock is not only shading the water flowing underneath it – it’s also producing enough clean electricity to power several thousand homes.
Josh Weimer is with the Turlock Irrigation District, which operates the canal. He says the structure is one of two solar canopies with slightly different designs, now up and running as part of a pilot study called “Project Nexus.”
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“We’re very excited. So the narrow span and also the wide span locations, there’s two sites. They’re both commissioned, and they’re both producing power and power are going into the electric grid, and our customers are receiving the benefits of these projects,” Weimer said.
Designers believe the concept of covering California’s massive system of canals and aqueducts could extend the reach of solar power across the state, without sacrificing valuable land. And since high-voltage power lines often run along the same state or county-owned right of ways, it could be cheaper and easier to link the electricity to the grid.
“These side squares are specifically chosen because of where we could interconnect into our local, electric grid. And so far, the project has been working well. So, we have essentially turned it over from a construction project to now it’s just one of our power plants,” Weimer said.
Jordan Harris is the co-founder of Bay Area-based Solar Aquagrid, which developed the concept. He said designers expected that the canopies would reduce evaporation and ultimately save water. But it appears that same cooling effect has other advantages as well.
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“We’re learning is that the solar panels over water are actually more productive than they would be on an adjacent piece of land, because photovoltaic panels have a thermal threshold. As they get hotter, they start losing productivity. So, this cooler microclimate actually makes them more productive,” Harris said.
He envisions expanding the canopy concept to major aqueducts, which run for thousands of miles through the Central Valley, considered one of the largest water moving systems of its kind in the world. He says the idea is now capturing international interest as well.
“We have had teams from water districts, from Romania off the Danube that are interested. We’ve had three different water districts from Spain. We’ve had met with people in Vietnam and Brazil, even had a delegation from Ukraine. So it’s a global opportunity,” Harris said.
And a clean energy innovation, being advanced here in California.
Teams from UC Merced are also gathering technical and scientific data from the project, analyzing benefits that could help move new projects forward.
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