TID lands $20 million grant to see if placing solar panels atop canals makes sense
The Turlock Irrigation District plans to use a $20 million state grant to demonstrate solar panels atop canals.
TID would be the first water agency in the nation to try such a thing if its board votes Tuesday to accept the money.
The panels would feed electricity into transmission lines already along the canals, helping TID boost the renewable sources for its 103,000 or so power customers. The devices also would shade the water, possibly reducing evaporation losses for farmers.
The pilot project grew out of a study last year at the Merced and Santa Cruz campuses of the University of California. Researchers said installing canal panels throughout the Central Valley could get the state halfway to its goal for climate-safe power.
TID plans to test the idea on two small canal segments. One is on the Main Canal about five miles east of Hickman. The other is along the Ceres Main Canal and Upper Lateral 3, about three miles west of Keyes.
Details were not available Friday on the power capacity of the panels or the timeline for installing and evaluating them. The effort will involve UC researchers and Solar AquaGrid LLC, a Berkeley-based company that has promoted the idea.
“The project will serve as a proof-of-concept to pilot, research and study the solar-over-canal design and scalability using district land and electric grid access,” said a TID staff report in advance of Tuesday’s meeting.
The panels would be suspended over the canals in a way that does not interfere with operation and maintenance of the water system. The project includes batteries or another means of storing daytime power from the sun for use later.
The $20 million comes from the California Department of Water Resources, which chose TID for the pilot project. Gov. Gavin Newsom made it a specific line item in the 2021-22 budget because of the high interest in the research findings.
The UC study was in the March 2021 issue of the journal Nature Sustainability. The researchers did not use an actual solar panel on a canal but rather calculated sunlight intensity and other variables at eight latitudes.
The authors included Roger Bales, an engineering professor at UC Merced. “We need solar energy all over the state to achieve our goal of decarbonizing our economy,” he told The Modesto Bee last year.
The TID board will meet at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 8, at the district office, 333 E. Canal Drive. The public also can take part by phone or Zoom.
