The Gila River Indian Community (GRIC), located south of Phoenix, Arizona, has launched the first solar panels of their kind in the U.S. to cover a canal, aiming to protect water resources from the intense desert heat. These panels generate renewable energy while also reducing evaporation. GRIC is planning to expand this initiative with floating solar on a reservoir, aspiring to power all its irrigation systems. As the region faces a serious drought impacting the Colorado River, these innovative approaches are viewed as critical for sustainable water and energy management.
The solar farm's shape follows the path of a canal, with panels serving as awnings to shade the gently flowing water from the unforgiving heat and wind of the Sonoran Desert.
GRIC hopes to one day power all of its canal and irrigation operations with solar electricity, transforming itself into one of the most innovative and closely-watched water users in the West in the process.
Covering water with solar panels is not a new idea. But for some it represents an elegant mitigation of water shortages in the West.
Annual consumption from the river regularly exceeds its supply, and a decades-long drought... continues to leave water levels at Lake Powell and Lake Mead dangerously low.
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