The U.S. Interior Department will install solar panels above irrigation canals in California, Oregon and Utah, aided by $19 million from a congressional spending bill.
Planned projects include a $15 million pilot with the University of California, Merced to deploy up to three floating solar technologies in the Delta-Mendota Canal to assess the viability, costs and benefits of floating photovoltaic units, according to the Bureau of Reclamation.
Three projects in California, Utah, and Oregon will soon integrate solar panels onto water canals, thanks to federal funding from the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which allocated $25 million for PV installations co-located with water reclamation facilities.
Canals in California may soon feature a new look — solar panel canopies, designed to stop evaporation and soak up the sun’s rays, created under a new project funded with help from the federal government to boost green energy infrastructure.
Today, the California Department of Water Resources initiated a $100 million funding program to restore capacity to portions of the California Aqueduct, San Luis Canal, Delta-Mendota Canal, and Friant-Kern Canal lost to land subsidence occurring during the last several decades.
“Fixing these canals is an important foundational piece to ensure a reliable and climate resilient water supply for California,” said DWR Director Karla Nemeth. “It enables us to move water during very wet conditions, which will be essential to adapting to more extreme weather. Restoring capacity in our existing infrastructure provides a critical link in diversifying water supplies by supporting groundwater replenishment throughout the Central Valley and water recycling projects in Southern California. It’s a prudent investment in our water future.”
Several of the state’s key canals will get a sprinkle of state money this year and next toward fixing more than $2 billion in damage caused by sinking land from excessive groundwater pumping.
On Monday, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a massive budget “trailer” bill, which authorizes actual funding for programs and services outlined in the state budget that was passed June 15.
The trailer bill included $100 million for the Department of Water Resources to spend this fiscal year and proposed another $100 million for next year toward repairs to the California Aqueduct, Delta-Mendota Canal and Friant-Kern Canal. Together, repairs for those canals are estimated at $2.35 billion.
A bill aimed at improving the Valley’s two largest canal systems from continued subsidence-driven damage advanced through one house of the California State Legislature on Friday.
Senate Bill 559, a top priority for legislators on both side of the aisle in the San Joaquin Valley and led by Sen. Melissa Hurtado (D–Sanger), seeks to dedicate $785 million in spending for improvements to four sets of waterways, spearheaded by two canals servicing the Central Valley Project: the Delta-Mendota Canal and the Friant-Kern Canal.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
