Study on covering California irrigation canals with solar panels (Merced: power lines, transporting)

[OyCrumbler]

Researchers at UC Merced and UC Santa Cruz have released a paper on covering California irrigation canals with solar panels. These are generally concrete irrigation canals meant to shuttle water from one place to another (often southwards!) rather than canals for freight or passenger conveyance. There are supposedly multiple benefits to this. There's the obvious one that you get solar power generated and often the canals are over land owned by the state and so there will presumably less of a fight and acquisition cost for putting up these panels. The solar panels also get a slight cooling benefit from being above the canal which helps with efficiency, so overall, it's pretty well primed for generating a lot of solar power. The system also benefits the canal side of things because it reduces the amount of algae produced by these canals and the need to routinely clear that algae as well as greatly reduce the amount of water that evaporates on their way to where it's needed.

Systems like these have been trialed in India in several different places and under different systems, but the study attempts to evaluate the cost and benefits as it relates to California and especially in comparison to solar installations elsewhere in California. The study creates a model for estimating the cost and benefits and thus far the sites looked at point to a net economic benefit even *without* factoring in negative repercussions of climate change as it's only vis-a-vis similarly sized solar panel installations not over canals.

Paper:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-021-00693-8

Layman:
https://arstechnica.com/science/2021...-solar-panels/

[Racer46]

Originally Posted by OyCrumbler

Researchers at UC Merced and UC Santa Cruz have released a paper on covering California irrigation canals with solar panels. These are generally concrete irrigation canals meant to shuttle water from one place to another (often southwards!) rather than canals for freight or passenger conveyance. There are supposedly multiple benefits to this. There's the obvious one that you get solar power generated and often the canals are over land owned by the state and so there will presumably less of a fight and acquisition cost for putting up these panels. The solar panels also get a slight cooling benefit from being above the canal which helps with efficiency, so overall, it's pretty well primed for generating a lot of solar power. The system also benefits the canal side of things because it reduces the amount of algae produced by these canals and the need to routinely clear that algae as well as greatly reduce the amount of water that evaporates on their way to where it's needed.

Systems like these have been trialed in India in several different places and under different systems, but the study attempts to evaluate the cost and benefits as it relates to California and especially in comparison to solar installations elsewhere in California. The study creates a model for estimating the cost and benefits and thus far the sites looked at point to a net economic benefit even *without* factoring in negative repercussions of climate change as it's only vis-a-vis similarly sized solar panel installations not over canals.

Paper:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-021-00693-8

Layman:
https://arstechnica.com/science/2021...-solar-panels/

Sounds interesting. The power lines, etc will be the issue as they would be spread out over a long area if just on the canals.

[sav858]

That's actually a pretty cool/innovative idea. Hopefully the state doesn't screw it up somehow.

[OyCrumbler]

Originally Posted by Racer46

Sounds interesting. The power lines, etc will be the issue as they would be spread out over a long area if just on the canals.

Right, one of the ideas floated for if the site is particularly far from a grid connection is to serve as a power source for nearby irrigation pumps that are usually run with diesel generators. I reckon that and maybe signal / repeater towers for wireless coverage probably also makes sense (that also means that you can transmit data from sensors monitoring the panels, canal, etc.).

Originally Posted by sav858

That's actually a pretty cool/innovative idea. Hopefully the state doesn't screw it up somehow.

Write your representatives! It's quite possible for an academic study, even though done by UC researchers, to not have made it to the offices of a lot of CA representatives.

[Bill the Butcher]

This seems like a fantastic idea actually.

[evening sun]

Originally Posted by Bill the Butcher

This seems like a fantastic idea actually.

I agree, but they need to sell it to PGE, not give it to them for free. or give it to us residents.

[Hawk J]

There are many folks that pay for California fishing licences, who fish on the California Aqueduct & Delta/Mendota canal, etc. I don't think they would be happy if those concrete canals are covered with solar panels.

[Racer46]

Originally Posted by Hawk J

There are many folks that pay for California fishing licences, who fish on the California Aqueduct & Delta/Mendota canal, etc. I don't think they would be happy if those concrete canals are covered with solar panels.

The fish might not be too happy either. Uh oh, environmentalists will kill the idea to protect the fish. Except of course from those who pay tio fish.


Actually they would not likely cover the full length of it, but do it in sections near a facility, city, etc., that would benefit and reduce the cost to transfer the energy.

[Bill the Butcher]

Originally Posted by Hawk J

There are many folks that pay for California fishing licences, who fish on the California Aqueduct & Delta/Mendota canal, etc. I don't think they would be happy if those concrete canals are covered with solar panels.

Install them high enough so that it doesn’t effect the fishing? I think the anglers themselves would be fine. If anything, evens better as they could have some shade while fishing at certain times. The worry would be would it have negative effects on the fish and their for fishing. So install them high so plenty of light can get underneath.

My biggest gripe with solar panels is that they are an eyesore and waste a lot of land. Putting them in a location like a canal or aqua duct isn’t a waste since the land is already being used and can still be used for the main purpose of transporting water.

[NoMoreSnowForMe]

I love this idea.