A brand new pilot program might deal with two climate-related points within the Golden State.
The California Division of Water Assets is funding a $20 million pilot program to put in photo voltaic panels over the state’s water provide canals. The undertaking goals to scale back the quantity of water that evaporates, exacerbating the state’s historic drought, whereas the photo voltaic panels generate renewable power, a information launch mentioned.
“That is an thrilling undertaking,” Wade Crowfoot, California Pure Assets Secretary, mentioned in an announcement. “It ties our efforts in California to enhance water conservation and construct drought resilience to the clear power transition we’re driving throughout California.”
The pilot program will embody water channels in Central California. Not too long ago, the Los Angeles Metropolis Council voted to contemplate funding an analogous LA Aqueduct undertaking, KCRW reported.
The idea of this system resulted from analysis performed by Photo voltaic AquaGrid, a undertaking growth firm primarily based within the Bay Space. A UC Merced environmental engineering alumna, Brandi McKuin, was one of many researchers on the preliminary undertaking.
The analysis group discovered that “overlaying 4,000 miles of California’s water channels might cut back evaporation by as much as 82%, saving about 63 billion gallons of water yearly,” in keeping with a information launch from at UC Merced.
That quantity of water is roughly the identical quantity wanted to “irrigate 50,000 hectares of farmland or meet the residential water wants of greater than 2 million folks.”
The researchers advised that if all of the water canals within the state had been lined with photo voltaic panels, about 13 gigawatts of renewable energy may very well be generated, the information launch mentioned.
This vital step may even assist the state meet its 2030 local weather targets.
The Turlock Irrigation District in Northern California will break floor on the undertaking early subsequent yr, a information launch from the California Division of Water Assets mentioned.
