TECH

Company in the United States has started to put solar energy panels in water channels

Last year, American scientists published a feasibility study on the benefits of building solar panels over water channels. It has now become known that a Nexus pilot project is being implemented in California, in which solar panels will be placed in two channel spans in the Turlok irrigation district to collect energy.

According to available data, California authorities have allocated $20 million to implement the Nexus project. Construction of new power facilities above the canals is scheduled to begin in October this year. Solar panels will appear in the 150 meter span of the canal at Hickman. Likewise, the panels will be placed in a 1.6 km channel span in another part of the state.

“If it works within the first three kilometers of the Nexus project that we are implementing now, it could spread to many places,” said Josh Weimer, manager of Turlock Water & Power.

The length of California's canals is about 6,500 km. If they were all covered with solar panels, that would generate 13 gigawatts of renewable energy. Note that 1 gigawatt is enough to power 750,000 homes. Thus, about 9.75 million families can be supplied with energy. As of July 2021, there were 13.1 million households in California.

Image source: electrek.co