Story reaches Hacker News
1 Sep 21 11:10 PM · 2d ago · 3 posts · 1 comment · 3 sources · development 1 of 1
The KQED article is shared on Hacker News, gaining initial discussion among the tech and engineering community.
“And so I started thinking, could we do something similar in California?”
Jordan Harris, Solar Aquagrid co-founder · hn ↗Jordan Harris Co-founder of Solar AquagridRobin Raj Co-founder of Solar AquagridRoger Bales UC Merced professorTurlock Irrigation District Project partnerCalifornia Department of Water Resources State agency partner
The whole story postscomments the bright band is this development · numbered dots are the others · click one to jump
Reported in the same hours no headline names this development itself — these 1 claim were published in its stretch
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first by HN Best, 2d ago · also HN Frontpage
What people said 24 voices · best of 47 · verbatim
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Raj affectionately called the wide-span canopy his “singular field of dream.” Roger Bales, a professor at UC Merced who co-authored a 2021 study that helped convince the state to invest in this pilot, said his initial calculations indicate that putting panels over 100 miles of Turlock’s narrow canals could save enough water for 2,700 households…
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When you read lines like "California’s extensive network of canals and aqueducts is the lifeblood of the state, providing clean water to populous cities and expansive farms that wouldn’t otherwise have it." you have to ask how we ended up with these canal systems, what the tradeoffs are in a landscape setup this way rather than one where water…
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There were talks about a road that can charge your EV while driving. Basically wireless charging highways Wireless charging would suck - the field intensity drops off enormously with distance, even just a little bit like the ground clearance from the bottom of a vehicle to the road surface would waste a lot of power. The kind of charging that…
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California solar panels tower over canals in Turlock, proving a win-win that saves water, produces clean energy, and improves local water quality. https://www. kqed.org/science/2002033/heres -what-california-is-learning-from-solar-panels-built-over-irrigation-canals # Environment # Energy # Water # Southwest # California # Drought # Aquafers #…
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> Even though the canal is fenced in, “we have instances where we have cars go into the canal — we’ll have people go into the canal, and animals go into the canal,” Allen said, describing some of the challenges they faced as an urban water district.>“What Turlock is doing with their projects is very impressive, but we have a different-looking…
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There are signs and poles and overpasses all over highways. I’m not saying a support won’t get hit. I’m saying not enough will get hit for it to matter.
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# solar # WaterIsLife "Here’s What California Is Learning From Solar Panels Built Over Irrigation Canals California solar panels tower over canals in Turlock, proving to save water, produce clean energy and improve local water quality. California’s extensive network of canals and aqueducts is the lifeblood of the state, providing clean water to…
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It seems like it would be more effective to simply put all the solar panels in a field, and construct a cheap shade over the entire canal no? The supports in the picture are massive and don't look cheap. Also I would imagine the solar array uses more copper than a similar capacity array just built in a field. You can't daisy chain multiple miles…
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I am puzzled by this article on “What California Is Learning From Solar Panels Built Over Irrigation Canals” The idea is: irrigation canals suffer from evaporation. So why not cover them with solar panels, which will generate power while reducing evaporation? If covering the canals to reduce evaporation was worth doing, why hasn't it been done…
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oof, that is a crap ton of steel. I doubt those panels will ever harvest enough energy to offset the energy use to produce both the cells and supports.I imagine with cells in that configuration, lifting wind loads are significant which is why it's overbuilt like that.Perhaps some laminate timber for the cross supports?Lastly, the US has got to…
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California solar panels tower over canals in Turlock, proving to save water, produce clean energy and improve local water quality: https://www. kqed.org/science/2002033/heres -what-california-is-learning-from-solar-panels-built-over-irrigation-canals by KQED's Ella Jackson
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The supports in the picture are massive and don't look cheap.They look like ordinary “bents” for prefabricated metal buildings which are about the cheapest kind of building per square foot. Made out of steel, they are typically sold at a cost per ton like other steel shapes.The cost of the scheme is in maintenance. No ground level access. No easy…
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Anecdotally speaking, I have heard of a massive California solar farm in an undeveloped area that has serious vandalism problems. Junkies will find ways through the fencing at night, strip copper and other materials from panels, and cause thousands in damages and lost energy just to extract enough scrap for a fix.Nothing short of a face-to-face…
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I think someone made the mistake of calculating that the canals cover an absurd area, usually mapped by easement area instead of actual geometry. They’re absolutely right that permitting would be easier, without accounting for the fact that the majority of the canals run through the Sierras, and that the California Water Project is the biggest…
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21GW of Solar for California Land That Can No Longer Be Used for Agriculture - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46488648 - January 2026https://valleycleaninfrastructureplan.com/(covering canals reduces evaporation in addition to effectively being free space for solar PV; if the labor and material costs are reasonable, the land is free forever…
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> The shade supports don't have to hold up solar panels: Shade supports cost less.If you look at the photos, the solar panels are mounted directly on the supports. If you wanted a simple shade for the canal, you would have to mount some kind of roof on the supports instead of the solar panels. Granted, the solar panels probably weigh a bit more…
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> construct a cheap shade over the entire canalThat aint' gonna fly - you're going to have engineering requirements for a 100' span wither it's a shade structure or a solar panel. And don't even think about fabric shade sail types of things, nobody is going to want to replace those every 3 years.>it takes 1/6 the time to build on developed land…
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I wouldn't touch fields or canals. The US has incredible amounts of parking lots. They are also mostly built in very developed parts of the land with a lot of users for electric power in close proximity. And a parking lot is already "sealed ground". Might be less problematic to get a permit there?Additional plus: cars don't heat up in the sun. And…
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In Venezuela, currently in an unprecedented electricity crisis with daily rationing up to six hours, 10 billion dollars supposed to replace turbines in the main dam that supplies power to the country were stolen with no accountability. With that money you could have installed solar roofs in a million homes serving five million people…
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The idea of covering irrigation canals has been around probably for thousands of years. Only recently I have seen this being done in Xinjiang in towns right next to the desert. The canals which have river water often flow under streets and through little caves and such, enabling them to grow grapes and such. The grapes are then also providing…
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They should give credit where credit is due. Solar panels on top of irrigation canals was pioneered in the Indian state of Gujarat back in 2012[1][1]
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I'm really confused by this whole thread. How is this project fundamentally different from the solar shades used in parking lots, or even rooftop solar? You have existing land that's already productive, and you're making it more productive by installing solar panels. Building a new solar plant on new land is a completely orthogonal project.
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Puerto Rico has this problem too and that's US territory. Not as bad for sure. But it has expensive fossil fuel power generation and unreliable infrastructure. It's screaming out for renewable energy.The key to all this though is that fossil fuels exist to induce demand for weapons. Once you realize that it all makes (depressing) sense.
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Uncovered canals are ridiculously dumb, if you care about water conservation.There are resovoirs in California with millions of black rubber shade balls floating on the surface to reduce evaporation. There's no reason why we shouldn't be doing this everywhere.
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