The Turlock Irrigation District has completed a $20 million solar canopy over canals, marking a milestone in generating clean energy and promising water savings in the Central Valley city.”The Project Nexus—it is truly a pilot project. It is the first project of its kind in the state of California,” said Brandon McMillan from the Turlock Irrigation District.The project offers significant renewable energy benefits, serving both electricity needs and irrigation water on the canal side. McMillan said the potential reduction in evaporation is a key interest of the project. “It limits the light available for photosynthesis. So it could reduce the amount of aquatic weed growth, which is a major canal maintenance issue. It also saves land,” explained Brandi McKuin, a project scientist at UC Merced.However, the project faces challenges. “It’s more expensive to span a canal than it is to build a solar array on the ground, a ground-mounted system,” McKuin said. The team is working to quantify whether the benefits will outweigh the costs, considering water savings, reduced aquatic weed growth and land savings. “If we have less aquatic weed growth and if we don’t have to pay for land, does that make the system less expensive? And that’s what we’re working on quantifying now,” McKuin said.Researchers will gather data after a full season to assess the project’s results. Meanwhile, a prototype for a retractable solar canopy on rails is currently being shipped from Australia and is expected to be installed by late October.See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel