Meet the engineer calling for solar panels to be installed over canals to save billions of gallons of water a year
. But in the U.S., plans for solar canals have long been mired in inertia, with a lack of information about the benefits meaning no one wanted to pay the potentially higher upfront costs compared to building a conventional solar farm.a study
showing that, if California topped all 4,000 miles of its canals with solar panels, the state could save over 65 billion gallons of water a year. That’s enough to irrigate 50,000 acres of farmland or provide water for the homes of more than two million people.
The Turlock district, which provides water to 4,700 farmers across 150,000 acres, reached out to Bales’ team to volunteer for the pilot: the town is hoping to shut down two nearby gas-fired power plants soon, and is keen to scale up its renewable supply.
The solar canals project is part of this new phase in his career, dedicated to focusing more on solutions than research. The key to climate action, he’s found, is an area not often associated with scientists: communication. “To deliver projects that meet multiple needs, you have to get lots of different agencies—state and local—working together,” he says. “So here I am, an engineer at this point in my career, trying to get people to talk to each other.
It seems to be working. After the 2021 study’s release, Bales was “overwhelmed” with calls from media, local officials, and even U.S. Senate staff expressing interest in building solar canals. The enthusiasm makes sense: to meet the Biden Administrations’ ambitious targets, solar needs to scale up rapidly, from
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