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The Gila River Indian Community has announced that it has laid the foundation stone for a solar installation that will cover a stretch of the irrigation canal south of Phoenix.
The Gila River Indian Community has announced that it has signed an agreement with the US Army Corps of Engineers to install solar panels on the irrigation canals of its lands south of Phoenix, Arizona.
The first phase of the project will cover approximately 1,000 feet of canal, reducing water losses through evaporation. The project is expected to demonstrate the viability of canals covered with solar panels, which could lead to additional kilometers of solar canals for the community in later phases. The Army Corps is expected to complete the first phase of the project in 2025.
The cost of the first phase of the project amounts to $6.744 million and adds 1 MW of solar capacity while reducing evaporation in the canal. The project has a $517,000 grant from the Bureau of Reclamation. Funding for the second phase of the project is also expected to come from the Bureau of Reclamation, which is implementing a grant program established by Congress to pilot solar canal projects.
“This first pilot project will break new ground and foster the Communitys role as steward of our shudag (water) and in line with the Communitys tradition of bringing innovation to irrigation systems across its lands,” stated the governor of the Gila River Indian Community, Stephen Roe Lewis.
Earlier this year, a coalition of more than 125 groups urged the U.S. Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Reclamation to evaluate the effectiveness of solar channels. The petition, signed by many major environmental and climate groups, highlighted the opportunity to cover 8,000 miles of open-air canals with solar capacity. It is estimated that 25 GW of renewable energy could be installed in these locations, enough to supply almost 20 million homes, according to the group.
“The Bureau of Reclamation and states dependent on the Colorado River are already considering unprecedented water cuts to protect the water supply for 40 million people who depend on the river,” the letter said. “In a study examining similar performance in waterways within California, scientists estimated that the shade provided by solar panels could reduce water loss through evaporation by 63 billion gallons of water per year, an amount equivalent to annual water consumption of approximately 2 million people per year.”
The solar canal project launched by the Gila River community is one of the first in the United States to break ground. It is hoped that it will serve as an example for other regions facing the challenge of water conservation and clean energy goals.
For example, Californias Central Valley Project, a large canal system, alone uses about 1 billion kWh of electricity per year to pump water. Bringing solar energy to these systems would offer an efficient system to move water, displacing the diesel generators currently used.
“Given the Bureau of Reclamations long history of creating hydroelectric power, generating gigawatts of solar energy on its canals would be a purely additive benefit, and could even help fill shortfalls in electricity generation when hydroelectric facilities do not. may operate due to low water level,” the letter said.
Installing solar energy on canals is gaining popularity around the world. There are projects underway in California, India, Spain and France, many of them large scale. |
