Climate & Sustainability
A Blueprint for the Climate Infrastructure of the Future
California Solar Canal Initiative (CSCI)
Spanning 4,000 miles, the California canal system is the world’s largest water conveyance system. What if that system could be adapted to conserve the water that runs through it and generate renewable energy? CSCI is generating the research to bring this vision to life and accelerate solar panel deployment over canals. Why? Because turning canals into clean-power generators could not only revolutionize water and energy management but produce a long list of additional benefits, like:
To engage with the project team, please contact Public Exchange Project Manager,
Doug Messer
messerd@usc.edu
The Challenge
California’s Urgent Need to Conserve Water and Generate Clean Energy
California faces two urgent challenges: meeting its goal of producing 100% near pollution-free electricity by 2045 and addressing a projected 10% decrease in water supplies by 2040 due to severe droughts and reduced allocations from the Colorado River.
Currently, only 1 Gigawatt (GW) of new utility solar enters California’s grid each year—far below the 6 GW annual increase needed to reach the state’s renewable energy target. Meanwhile, the state must find more efficient ways to conserve water as supplies dwindle.
An ambitious solution—installing solar panels over California’s canals—could simultaneously generate clean energy and significantly reduce water evaporation. Initial estimates suggest that deploying solar panels across the state’s 4,000-mile canal network could reduce annual evaporation by …63 billion gallons—enough to meet the residential water needs of around 2 million people—while generating up to 13 GW of clean energy, enough to power 2 million homes each year.*
To test this innovative approach, in 2022 California launched a pilot project in the Central Valley in partnership with Turlock Irrigation District, UC Merced, and Solar AquaGrid. However, to secure California’s water future and meet its clean energy goals, rigorous research is needed to expand solar canals statewide.
*Not all of the state’s 4,000 miles of canals can or will be covered with solar panels.
“California is leading the way in exploring innovative solutions to tackle climate change and strengthen our water and energy resilience. We are excited to see top research institutions come together to help deploy solar panels over water canals — a big idea with great potential. Science-driven collaborations like this one are critical to guide our path forward.“ -Secretary Wade Crowfoot, California Natural Resource Agency
The Approach
USC Dornsife Public Exchange has assembled a research team from seven universities to asses the most pressing challenges to implementing solar canals at scale:
Scaling: Developing data from pilot projects, including canal operational and maintenance practices, to assess costs, benefits, and scalability.
Policy and Regulatory: Navigating the energy, water, and land use policies that will either advance or hinder solar canal construction.
Comparative Economics: Comparing the cost-competitiveness of solar canals with other distributed solar options.
Community Resilience: Building a framework to identify and evaluate the benefits and impacts of solar canals on communities.
A decision-making framework will support the integration of the different research areas to provide useful inputs for decision-makers and identify gaps in the analysis.
What’s Next
Research began in fall 2024 with the Policy and Regulatory Analysis focused on examining electricity market rules that impact the revenues and siting of solar canal systems. On March 24, 2025, the California Solar Canal Summit brought together research faculty, advisors, state agencies, and community partners in Sacramento. Insights from the summit are now shaping the next phase of research.
RESEARCH-DRIVEN IMPACT
Following the completion of the analyses, CSCI will develop an interactive platform that will provide decision-makers, project developers, and stakeholders with data and insights to identify the best canal locations for arrays of solar panels.
Header image and image above provided courtesy of Solar AquaGrid.
CLICK HERE for the CSCI Media Kit:
including the press release, photos, and more.
Team
The project team and advisory council behind CSCI are multidisciplinary and cross-sector. Learn more about the team here.
The California Solar Canal Initiative is a collaboration between the USC Dornsife Public Exchange, Solar AquaGrid, USC Price School of Public Policy, USC Viterbi School of Engineering, UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, UC Merced, UC Law San Francisco, San Jose State University, and The University of Kansas.
