Solar panel water channel

Can solar panels save water?

The idea is simple: install solar panels over canals in sunny, water-scarce regions where they reduce evaporation and make electricity. A study by the University of California, Merced gives a boost to the idea, estimating that 63 billion gallons of water could be saved by covering California’s 4,000 miles of canals.

Should solar panels be installed over canals?

Installing solar panels over the canals makes both systems more efficient. The solar panels would reduce evaporation from the canals, especially during hot California summers. And because water heats up more slowly than land, the canal water flowing beneath the panels could cool them by 10 F, boosting production of electricity by up to 3%.

Can solar panels protect canals from water loss?

Covering canals with solar panels helps the panels to operate more efficiently — and the shade helps to keep the canals’ water from being lost to evaporation. Most solar-panel arrays are located on the ground or on rooftops. But some researchers have explored options, such as putting floating panels on reservoirs, that aim to reduce water loss.

Can solar panels save water in California's canals?

California’s efforts got a jump start from a 2021 study published by Bales and his colleagues, who determined that covering the state’s canals with solar panels could reduce evaporation by as much as 90 percent and save 63 billion gallons of water per year — enough to meet the residential water needs of more than two million people.

Why do we cover canals with solar panels?

Credit: Citizens of the Planet/Education Images/Universal Images Group/Getty Covering canals with solar panels helps the panels to operate more efficiently — and the shade helps to keep the canals’ water from being lost to evaporation. Most solar-panel arrays are located on the ground or on rooftops.

Can solar panels be installed on California's canals?

“It’s just common sense in our eyes.” The California Department of Water Resources is providing $20 million to test the concept in Stanislaus County and to help determine where else along the state’s 4,000 miles of canals — one of the largest water conveyance systems in the world — it would make the most sense to install solar panels.