Project Nexus
Water & Energy Integration for the Future
What is Project Nexus?
Project Nexus includes the installation of solar panel canopies over various sections of Turlock Irrigation District’s (TID) irrigation canals. Project Nexus will serve as a Proof of Concept to pilot and further study solar over canal design, deployment, and co-benefits on behalf of the State of California using TID infrastructure and electrical grid access.
The Project is underway and expected to be completed in 2025.
Project Updates
The Project is underway and anticipated to be complete in 2025.
Who are the Project Nexus Partners?
The first test deployment of solar panels over open canals in the nation is being developed as a public-private-academic collaboration, including:
- Turlock Irrigation District – The first irrigation district in California, TID is uniquely suited to pilot this project as both an irrigation district with 250 miles of canals and a retail electricity provider to homes, businesses and farms in the central valley.
- CA Department of Water Resources – DWR is committed to exploring all efforts meant to advance integration of renewable energy to provide clean energy to California. The Department is providing funding from the state general fund and technical assistance to TID.
- Solar AquaGrid – Bay Area development firm Solar AquaGrid serves as program manager for Project Nexus. Solar AquaGrid originated the pilot project after first commissioning the UC Merced Study in 2015, and is facilitating collaboration among TID and the various parties to bring Project Nexus to fruition.
- UC Merced – Located only a few miles from TID, UC Merced researchers have been contracted to provide ongoing support, research and analysis of the project for the state and public.
Project Nexus Goals
- Demonstrate proof of concept of narrow and wide-span canal coverage of solar panels
- Increase renewable power generation
- Experience water quality improvements
- Reduce vegetative growth in the canals
- Reduce water evaporation in canals
- Investigate integration between renewable power generation and energy storage
UC Merced Study
The 2021 study showed that covering all of the approximately 4,000 miles of public water delivery system infrastructure in California with solar panels can result in significant, water, energy and cost savings for the state. The study illustrates a savings of 63 billion gallons of water annually (enough to irrigate 50,000 acres of farmland or meet the residential water needs of more than 2 million people).
Based on data from the published study, the researchers estimated that covering the state’s canals with solar would generate 13 gigawatts of power, which is more than half the projected new solar capacity needed by 2030 to meet the state’s decarbonization goals. As such, Project Nexus is a way to test these conceptual projections at a much smaller scale.