First India did it, now the United States is covering its irrigation canals with millions of solar panels

You can kill two birds with one stone by covering irrigation canals in drought-affected areas with solar panels. India has already demonstrated this and now the United States is doing it on a large scale.

United States plan. The United States federal government has allocated $25 million to install solar panels on irrigation canals in California, Oregon, Utah, and Arizona.

Financed by the new inflation reduction law, the photovoltaic projects have a double benefit: accelerating the transition to renewable energy sources and, due to the shading of the modules, reducing water losses due to evaporation in drought-affected areas.

Resilience against drought. The government will monitor the results of these projects to continue their expansion across western communities that are increasingly facing perennial drought.

A study by the University of California estimated that 240 billion liters of water would be saved if the state covered all its irrigation canals with solar panels. In turn, these projects will add 13 GW of solar power capacity to the electricity grid.

Passive cooling and algae. Installing solar panels over water not only increases the resiliency of farms in areas affected by rain shortages, but also keeps the photovoltaic cells cooler, improving their efficiency and increasing power output.

In addition to reducing water evaporation rates and producing energy, solar panels can facilitate the maintenance of canals and ditches by limiting the presence of algae and aquatic plants.

It is not the first country to do so. India was one of the countries that pioneered this concept in areas like Gujarat, which has 80,000 kilometers of irrigation canals. It not only demonstrated these benefits, but also avoided using large portions of arable land for its solar projects.

The United States is now considering implementation on a much larger scale. The largest project, on California’s Delta-Mendota Canal, will use floating solar panels. Others, such as Utah’s Layton Canal, will use advanced structures to install the modules.

Image | solar aquagrid

In Xataka There are so many solar panels on California rooftops that they have become a problem for the electrical grid.