Tell your state leaders to fast-track a build-out of solar arrays for canals!

California has finished Project Nexus, a pilot solar canal generating clean electrons  atop irrigation infrastructure in the Central Valley. This 1.6-megawatt installation covers 130 feet of canal in the Turlock Irrigation District. It’s the second-ever solar canal in America, following a project in Arizona by the Gila River Indian Community (who are already working on two more)! Solar canals bring a multitude of benefits: in addition to generating more clean power, they can appreciably reduce water loss to evaporation! This is such a clear win-win that several more early solar canal projects are already moving ahead without federal support.

“It can actually be really fast as a project…

By the next year, you can have really cheap electricity, and that gives [irrigation districts] stability over the 30-year life of the project…

We have become really familiar with the economics of building these [canal] projects…

We have a pretty good playbook of how to continue these projects going forward, even without any grant funding from the federal government.”

— Ben Lepley of Tectonicus, solar canal-installing engineer

The potential is immense: California alone has over 4,000 miles of irrigation canals. A recent study calculated that if appreciable portions were covered with solar panels it would provide 13 GW (13,000 MW) of new electricity-generating capacity and power 2 million homes while saving up to 63 billion gallons of water!

This is a win-win solution to be accelerated as fast as possible! There are irrigation and other canals across the nation. State leaders have a golden opportunity to quickly and easily conserve help conserve their state’s water while adding abundant clean power to the grid, simply by fast-tracking the deployment of solar canals with supportive incentives, regulations, and permitting.

Tell your state leaders to fast-track a build-out of solar arrays for canals!