How Solar Panels Can Help Solve California’s Drought
The simple genius of solar canals explained. The first 100 people to use code UNDECIDED at the link below will get 20% off of Incogni: incogni.com/undecided. The southwestern U.S. is in the throes of a “megadrought” so severe that we’ve broken the record - all 1,200 years of it. Researchers from the University of California have proposed a solution that could potentially address both the water and energy crises at the same time: covering irrigation canals with solar panels. But is this just another renewable energy gimmick, or does it hold a little more water? Let’s take a deeper dive to find out.
Watch Solar Panels Plus Farming? Agrivoltaics Explained • Solar Panels Plus Farm...
Video script and citations:
undecidedmf.com/how-solar-pan...
Corrections:
07:42 - Should read 238 billion liters, not million
Get my achieve energy security with solar guide:
link.undecidedmf.com/solar-guide
Follow-up podcast:
Video version - / @stilltbd
Audio version - bit.ly/stilltbdfm
Join the Undecided Discord server:
link.undecidedmf.com/discord
👋 Support Undecided on Patreon!
/ mattferrell
⚙️ Gear & Products I Like
undecidedmf.com/shop/
Visit my Energysage Portal (US):
Research solar panels and get quotes for free!
link.undecidedmf.com/energysage
And find heat pump installers near you (US):
link.undecidedmf.com/energysa...
Or find community solar near you (US):
link.undecidedmf.com/communit...
For a curated solar buying experience (Canada)
EnergyPal's free personalized quotes:
energypal.com/undecided
Tesla Referral Code:
Get 1,000 free supercharging miles
or a discount on Tesla Solar & Powerwalls
ts.la/matthew84515
👉 Follow Me
Mastodon
mastodon.social/@mattferrell
X
X.com/mattferrell
X.com/undecidedMF
Instagram
/ mattferrell
/ undecidedmf
Facebook
/ undecidedmf
Website
undecidedmf.com
📺 KZhead Tools I Recommend
Audio file(s) provided by Epidemic Sound
bit.ly/UndecidedEpidemic
TubeBuddy
www.tubebuddy.com/undecided
VidIQ
vidiq.com/undecided
I may earn a small commission for my endorsement or recommendation to products or services linked above, but I wouldn't put them here if I didn't like them. Your purchase helps support the channel and the videos I produce. Thank you.
Do you think solutions like solar canals are a good idea? The first 100 people to use code UNDECIDED at the link below will get 20% off of Incogni: incogni.com/undecided. Corrections: 07:42 - Should read 238 billion liters, not million If you liked this video, check out Solar Panels Plus Farming? Agrivoltaics Explained kzhead.info/sun/n8uTctB8ZIZ5eX0/bejne.html
Is it better, is it bad? I'm undecided. But did you know the USA is on pace to generate more power from renewables than coal for the entire 2022 year.
I've thought that highway medians and interchanges...like Massachusetts Turnpike as well as dam fronts would be great places for panels.
Please cover Mark Shepard of restoration ag fame. Bad conventional ag practices are a big contributor to air pollution because of soil carbon loss during winter fallow and typical spring plowing and dependence on annual plants. They use more water than is necessary because soil exposed to both sun solarization and wind dessication cause soil biota death, and through monocultures. They rely on site-poor plants that also reduce food diversity. Livestock that overgraze pastures or are raised in CAFO systems also cause ag problems including soil and water pollution as well as adding to the costs of food production. Would also like to see something on the different techniques Brad Lancaster uses for rainwater harvesting in rural and urban areas and how he has influenced the city of Tucson, as well as see something on Walter Jehne's approach to addressing climate change through rainwater harvesting, soil carbon sequestration/healthy soil biota and refreening. These methods could reverse the aerosolized carbon cycle because they are so effective while increasing high quality food and livestock feed yields.
As So Cal uses a lot more electricity during daytime hours photovoltaic make more sense, this could also relocalize electrical generation which is important to reducing electrical losses. Where photovoltaics are difficult to implement over water, installing VAWTs could work because water is smooth and wind travels over it well. No need to cut down trees if a canal is shaded.
Mixing water and electricity, what's the worse that could happen
"Hey guys, maybe we shouldn't have open water moving through 140 degree concrete channels through a desert?"
Doesn't water boil at 100°?
@@Gribbo9999 100c yes, but 212f. ;)
@@Gribbo9999 We're talking about america. We use the pain in the ass measure here.
@@Gribbo9999 Different scale.
It came down to cost when it was constructed and availability of water.
I am from Gujarat, India . I have following Matt for more than a year now and I am very proud today to see him take inspiration from my homestate as most of his videos cover America and UK only .
Every time I have driven between San Francisco and LA on I5 I have wondered why the irrigation canals aren’t covered… and why they aren’t covered by solar panels. It just seems like a good idea and I’m glad to hear that it may become a reality!
Yea because others people money just flows like mana from heaven onto Govt employees. Why dont you move to China where the CCP runs things?
Open irrigation channels were a cheap option back when we didn't know/didn't care about climate change. They've now become a luxury we can no longer afford.
@@acflory.writer "Climate Change" has been on-going for 4.57bn years. You Communists wont stop it from changing no matter how much Communism you try. Who again are the Climate Changing Deniers? George Washington was shooting Redcoats because of an over-priced stamp. What would George be doing to Communists today is what you Commie/Fascists should be asking yourselves.
@@mitch_the_-itch -giggles- Thank you. You actually made me laugh out loud. Have a great day. :D
You see... there is this tiny, little problem with solar power. You can't turn it off. And it leads to this other problem of energy storage. So here is the answer to your question of "why".
Just like Agrovoltaics combining two things to be greater than either single thing alone sounds like a huge win to me. It will be great to see more of these installations in the future.
From what I understand the biggest downside is the fact they can’t use tractors but I might be wrong on that.
@@M33f3r Depends, you have agrovoltaic installations that are build higher to allow tractor access underneath (It think the testproject in Germany did this), ofcourse this is more costly, but it is something you can look at.
I saw the thumbnail and that's exactly what it reminded me of. Also massive home rooftop solar panels, instead of over reliance on extremely expensive and time consuming transmission lines from huge solar and wind farms even though they have their place as well, but we would need less of them.
India started doing this a fee years ago with some success...my belief with renewable has always been how to use it over existing infrastructure. I understand that at times the only options is massive solar farms, it still hurts to watch useful recently active farm land get plowed over and turned into a solar farm because that makes more money then food production. This is a good idea in my book just needs to be implemented correctly.
Over a decade ago
solar farms are incredibly innefficient in industrial scale, one nuclear power plant can do the job 20 solar farms can or more.
@thefarter yes this is correct but even if we could cut through all the red tape today minimum 7 to 10 years to bring it online, but normal pace for the US would be closer to 15 years and billions invested for maybe a 20 year service life. I'm with you I'd prefer to see more nuclear get built but we got to play with the cards we have right now. Reason why I prefer with solar projects to be stacked onto of existing infrastructure.
@devin anderson thats with with traditional nuclear, the up coming reactors are planned to be built in factories and shipyards, one company is looking at a 2 year turn around time for a 500mw plant.
@Ben Coad that will be a market changing product for sure...short of a long winded response we probably won't see a market viable system for atleast a decade but hey I could be wrong only time will tell.
Water consumption in cleaning solar panels is an oft raised issue. Being able to rinse them with water you pump from the canal below feels like a win! As long as you're not using any chemicals, any dust/grime that gets washed off would have landed in the water if it hadn't landed on the solar panel so there's theoretically no issue with contamination. I'd be concerned about disturbing natural ecosystems, but there's plenty of man-made reservoirs and canals to go around. LA's reservoir uses these black plastic balls to reduce evaporation, using solar panels instead is obviously more complex but has the potential to add more value as well.
> I'd be concerned about disturbing natural ecosystems Manmade canals are already disturbed natural ecosystems. I struggle to think of any part of human infrastructure that isn't already disturbed natural ecosystems.
@@MrMartinSchou I think you misread me, apologies for that. When I said "there's plenty of man-made reservoirs and canals to go around" I meant those as structures where I'm not super worried about disturbing ecosystems. There should be enough of those to build power infrastructure on such that we don't need to be seriously disturbing naturally occuring lakes/rivers/lagoons. Even dams might not be good to build on, as even though they're definitionally disturbed environments they often have plenty of life and full food chains.
I wonder if it's really that one-sided a win. Canals and other bodies of water near urban areas tend to be turbid, whether that's straight up displaced silt and floating sediment or less natural forms of pollution; if you're pumping the cleaning water straight out of the canal you're also showering this particulate matter and these pollutants all over the panels, much of which will remain on the panels' surface until such time as a cleaning crew comes by to give the panels a good manual scrubbing. It's a definite win for water management, but I imagine it might cause more than a few issues for energy production and panel lifespan.
@@AlternaHunter The panels are basically just glass, even if the water is so muddy that it doesn't clean the panels properly it's not going to damage them. If the canal is growing stuff or full of silt it is likely a problem with water flow, so people should probably fix that before putting any panels over it anyway.
@@AlternaHunterpumps have filters. Yes, replacing filters or running a back flow cycle will be required, but one pump can supply a lot of water, eh? As the former guy would say, it’s a nothingburger.
I live in Southern California, and live less than a mile from the aqueduct, in the high desert. I think it would be a great idea to cover as much as they can, for all the reasons you discussed. We have solar farms, popping up everywhere. It ruins the fragile ecosystem of the desert, as well as unpleasant to see. I would much rather have it covering the water, that so many depend on. Thank you for the research that you shared!
Yes, all of what you just said
For farmers that want to grow things under the panels (agrivoltaics), you would also save land. Also parking lots and roads. There might be fish farmers that would grow fish under floating panels. Lots of ways to multi-use with solar panels.
One of the best things about solar panels is their placement flexibility. They can go on all sorts of waste space (like covering canals, and parking lots, and roofs). The placement may not be as ideally efficient as a perfect solar farm location, but it should be enough to be cost-effective, while also solving other problems, such as canal/reservoir evaporation.
I vote for parking lots first priority. Keep me dry, cool, snow free when visiting the mall - while charging my EV. Estimates of 4000 square miles of parking lots in America should charge a hell of a lot of EVs with a few megawatts left over.. Fist mall that offers me covered parking and free charging gets my business!
Exactly this. While these locations may not be the very best, don’t let perfect become the enemy of good. These installations would be good.
This is the dumbest idea since solar friggin roadways. Solar panels are only useful for meeting peak loads. The EROI of solar is just WAY too low. It's even worse when the panels are laying flat.
@@christo930 These don’t seem to be laying flat, especially when they’re described as “angled” in the video. Did you watch the video?
@@christo930 “The EROI of solar is just WAY too low”. Well, actually. Solar is THE cheapest source of electricity there is right now, and I expect it will stay that way. Prices fell almost 90% in a decade, and are expected to fall another 50% or more by 2030. It’s not surprising, since a solar panel is just a simple silicon film behind a protective glass sheet, with some trace circuitry and a frame. At scale, it’s not much more complicated than a dual-pane window. The problem with solar isn’t the EROI, because they’re SO cheap to make and can be installed almost anywhere at scales own to millimeters across. The problem is the irregular, cyclic nature of the output. Hence the tremendous need for storage systems, which can buy cheap solar/wind power during the time Nature provides, and sell when Nature is not providing. But with solar costing 20% of coal or nuclear and significantly cheaper than onshore wind and fracked gas, that’s a LOT of price window to build storage in. So yeah, if you think EROI is the problem with solar, you really need to look more closely. In this case, though, solar is solving an external problem - evaporation of open water in drought-prone areas. Gotta shade it with SOMETHING, and solar panels have to go SOMEWHERE. Kills two birds with one stone.
It's an obvious win for California. The California Aqueduct and the larger side canals are quite literally a perfect fit. Not too narrow, not too wide... just right. Runs most of the length of the state and evaporation is a big issue. Also runs through the central valley which is flat and wide-open, so no trees on the sides, and is near transmission line infrastructure in many places along the route. You can't ask for much more than that!
I lived in Tempe AZ for a few years. They have lots of man made canals in the area. This is one of the hottest and driest areas in the world and they just made canals that slowly moving water that sits in dry and hot air. This seems the perfect solution to two problems plus the benefits of more solar power then could be possible without the cooling effect of the water under the solar panels. I have had solar on my home for over 10 years now. Nothing produces more power then a sunny 55-60 degree day. Very exciting.
Building cities and piling up people in a desert don't make sense either.
This is genius. I go out of my way to buy things that have duel purposes, I've always lived this way. I recycle where ever I can and I reuse what other people would call trash. I make furniture out of cardboard boxes and throw very little away. That's why I say, this is genius. Keep at it guys, you'll get it completely right. Use a pivot arm to pull panels out of the canal for repair work and for cleaning the canal.
Same, I love things with dual purposes. It's super efficient.
Mildly surprised Singapore's own floatovoltaic array wasn't mentioned, since it's one of the largest floating solar farms in the world right now.
Thank you. It's unbelievable that this kind of irrigation is prevalent in a cutting edge state as California (I know about it for years, it's not new for me). This is how the Soviet Union emptied the 4th largest lake in the world, the Aral sea. It's time for moving to sealed water pipes and drip irrigation...
And what you do not seem to know is that flood irrigation helps to refresh the ground water aquifers. going to drip irrigation, etc has had a negative effect on the aquifers
Replenish aquifers? Are you mad or just uniformed?
Try doing the math on how much more water you have to use for flooding, vs how much you might lose from using drip! For very hot climates like that, most of the water will end up evaporating, not in the aquifers - and when it eventually come back down as rain, it will probably be somewhere else, also not doing anything for the aquifers - at least not the locals ones you are using! Saving water will be better!
did you just call california cutting edge? lol. they have some good coders in the bay area, but other than that its a complete s***-hole
Australia is another country with abundant sunshine, and [usually] not enough rain. We have both hydro and massive reservoirs to supply potable water to our cities. This sounds like a great way to increase solar gain and save our precious water at the same time. Thumbs very much UP. :)
And reduce fossil fuel sourced electricity
@@r.b.l.5841 Yes!
I saw a solar farm over a retention pond. I thought it was a good idea. So much land here in Florida is used to preserve the water table and these solar farms could be a perfect adjunct
Well done, Matt! I just shared this with my LinkedIn profile. I have a friend from the Indian state of Gujarat and sent it to him directly. I think this is a really great topic that does not get enough coverage. We should be doing more to maximize the space available over water that needs conservation. There are some other benefits that I think could be explored further: the cabling could be cool to increase the impassively of the cable, and reduce overall cost of the conductor, having a power source right next to all of the pump systems that drive the water out to the users could be a really great way to reduce distribution network upgrades, there is also a heat sink available for battery cooling circuits.
This was possible because of that states visionary CM, if not for petty politics and corruption most states could have followed the lead
Thanks for sharing the video with your friend! And for sharing you thoughts/insights on it.
in france they even monted vertical double sided solar panels oriented east west along the water canals to provide electricity in the morning and evening when horizontal panel mounted on the water canal were not so eficient. in that way they took advantage of the electricity grid already installed for the horizontal panels
Videos like this consistently improve my mood and optimism.
I wouldn't say this would SOLVE the drought issue, but it absolutely CAN help reduce water loss. My daughter-in-law lives in Antelope Valley north of Los Angeles, where a significant length of the California Aqueduct that feeds water to L.A. traverses. It has ALWAYS mystified me why they never tried to cover the Aqueduct in any fashion, because it is obvious to any and all that evaporation losses of uncovered water in a desert valley with nearly year-round high winds is an enormous waste.
Hi Matt, thanks for the video! That's a very interesting solution, and we need to start to find ways to optime our resources and go for really clean energy sources. Our crew recently filmed a very problematic situation happening in Europe. In the middle of the energy crisis, a lot has been said about wood pellets as a cleaner and more sustainable energy resource. But our findings were very controversial.
I've seen mention of wood pellets too. If they are locally supplied, from "waste" wood, sure they may be reasonable. But I've seen suggestions of shipping pellets from North America to Europe. I can't see how that could be ecologically (CO2) viable.
Unfortunately a lot of that wood comes from Canadian and US forest.plantations. It's NOT green energy if shipped half way around the world.
Sustainable but not clean at all, burning things just isn't green/clean...
@@kevroll99 It is greener/cleaner than burning petroleum or coal. Petroleum and coal products release "new" CO2 to the atmosphere. Carbon / CO2 which has been sequestered under ground for millions of years. That sequestered Carbon reduced the atmospheric concentration of C02, contributing to global cooling hundreds of millions of years ago. The carbon released from burning pellets was taken from the atmosphere to grow the the tree, and returned upon burning. It is a short term "circular" economy. Nothing gained, nothing lost, net zero change over the lifecycle. Regardless, the CO2 from the wood pellets would have been returned to the atmosphere in relatively short time as the wood waste was decomposed. Burning wood pellets close to location wood was grown incurs relatively small transportation CO2 expense. Burning wood pellets that have been transported across an ocean has very little credibility as "green" fuel. It is "green washing".
Thanks for sharing!
These are great. This combined with parking lot coverings of solar panels would significantly reduce the strain on the grid.
Great idea. I wonder how much water would be saved as it slows down evaporation and save more water? I live in the South end of the San Joaquin Valley in California and the draught has had major consequences on the population. A few years ago the wells on the East side of town dried up. There was no drinking water and the area had to have water containers put in peoples yards and they had to use public showers for bathing.
7:40. the entire length of canals in california saves 63 billion gallons from evap
@@Jay-nk6dm california residents use 600b gallons a year this would save the state 10% of the water its not the end all be all but thats a huge step in the right direction
@@isuckatguitarandbass4256 yeah I didn’t say it would be. Considering that the amount of water falling on the state doesn’t really change, a 10% bump would be huge. My worry is that instead of changing water use people just go back to normal.
@@isuckatguitarandbass4256 I like comments like this. This is not a one solution issue. Its going to take a multitude of changes and implementations and ideas of all kinds. We need solar, we need wind, we need hydro, we need geothermal, we could really use more nuclear but everyone is so afraid.
CA once had enough reservoirs but nothing has been built since the population doubled. Droughts will happen and that why you build reservoirs.
I appreciate your balanced reporting of the pros/cons.
These ideas, integrating and dual functions is clearly the way to go. Solar panels capacity to shade and cool what is below makes a huge amount of sense.
I'm trying to think of ways to get sun to the dark side of the earth without making it day time for everyone 24/7. Only way I can think to do it is to shoot a lazerbeam all the way around earth which I don't even think it possible. Probably get almost no energy by the time you get to the dark side. We got all these solar panels doing NOTHING at night time. That's a tough problem to fix if it's impossible to just easily bounce a lazerbeam onto mirrors in space all the way around to the dark side
The state of Gujarat in India has already done this. They covered the canal with solar panels. That reduced the evaporation of water and also made sure the electricity reaches the villages. It is an old technique. The then CM of Gujarat (Present day PM of India) did that and he was laughed at initially. India has also achieved its Solar goals of 2030 in 2021 itself. Yes we have high density in population but we have large uninhabited lands too. You'll find some of the largest solar parks in India too. So the opening of the video was a bit misinformation. Thanks!! Your sub from India.
Thanks for sharing, but I did cover how India is leading the charge on this in the heart of the video. There's awesome work being done in India that the rest of the world can learn from.
this also helps get around the dying off of vegetation that some solar farms have been seeing. As has been said many times, it's not THE solution, but it adds a piece to a bigger puzzle. Maybe I missed it, but did you say anything about instead of having them float, they could be mounted on a frame that keeps them above flood stage. This would make it easier to orient the panels in the right direction, and probably help with the longevity of the panels by keeping them out of direct contact with the water.
I'd say it's implied that not all of them would float. In some situations such as those with highly variable water levels, speeds or on steep declines, an external frame/suspension would be necessary. The main reason for the focus on "floatation" is that the buoyancy of water hugely reduces the amount of material needed in the framing. That reduces the cost dramatically, but it doesn't mean that a non-floating frame wouldn't be beneficial or viable in some circumstances. Like all things, economies of scale come into it. The cost will come down dramatically if this is adopted widely across the globe.
If this one plan accomplishes 50% of Californias energy needs seems like it’s well… 50% of the solution
Floating panels on lakes would be relatively easy to rotate. This would increase output if the panels are oriented perpendicular to the solar rays at all times.
Right at the 13:15 - :20 mark he talks about a higher BoM (Bill of Materials) due to needing galvanized steel to prevent corrosion on the supports and shows an image of a stationary set suspended over some body of water (appears to be a canal).
The panels over canals are on frames, the plan to float them only applies to reservoirs. Given the best way for workers to get around to inspect and maintain the panels would be on boats and the panel roof can't be to low or it gets too dark under it to see, there needs to be enough head room. But let's talk some economics: Assume the support posts are set 30' apart; there is one on each side so 352 posts per mile. A simple 2-3" steel pipe is about $10/foot, assuming bulk orders. That means for each foot of extra head room you have to pay $3.5k per mile, and there would be hundreds of miles, possibly thousand, of these covered canals. Compared to the cost of millions of solar panels and all the rest of the framework they need a few million dollars does not sound like much, but I bet when the committee designing these starts looking for cost cutting measures they will make the frames as low as possible...
Finally this is a sensible idea. Few years ago I was pretty surprised to see, that they put the solar farms into the fields and then move the vegetable growing on top of houses and high-rise buildings. The next idea was to put the solar panels under the roads. Panels over canals make sense, just like how putting solar panels above parking lots. A few malls already did that around me, and it's great.
Check the link on agrovoltaics because there are a lot of crop plants that grow better under cover.
Thanks for bringing this forward, Matt. The way forward is going to be a patchwork of many different means to achieving these gains. Any time the gain outweighs the cost, we are heading in the right direction. Sense footprint is so valuable in a number of places its good to see symbiotic relationships with solar being developed.
Building those over a dam would be a huge benefit. Imagine it producing 20% of the energy, it means 20% less water flowing through the dam. 24h non-stop power! And the grid tie is already installed!
I once had a similar idea, about roofing highways. It's not like the sun heating up the asphalt is of much use, and they occupy quite a bit of land.
It'll never happen because car accidents are too frequent. Would be FAR too costly to repair that many panels all the time
Thank you for making the published data understandable for the rest of the world as well! 👍
I enjoy your productions and add to my knowledge base on specifics of topics I am interested in but am not familiar with until you cover them. thank you.
Ahhh, i remember reading about this in Indian state of Gujarat. It was supposedly the idea of current PM of India who was CM of Gujarat at that time some 15yrs ago. Its a very cool method. It prevents water from evaporating during summer & water helps improve efficiency of Solar Panels by cooling it down.
I love how such a simple idea can have such a large impact and it's easy innovations like this that will bring our world into the future!
Great presentation of a win-win idea. I live in California and would love to see the canals covered with solar, in appropriate areas. I have had roof top solar for over 30 years and love the way it works. I did not know about the degradation in production from higher temperatures. We on the coast so don't experience high temperatures often.
I think that problem with those canals is that it will be very hard to keep them safe from theft or grief as survelliance will be nightmare for long instead of squared spaces.
For theft, at least, there may be some benefit from the fact it’s over water and therefore it’s harder to find a good place to stand on/place equipment on to disconnect and recover the panels.
Yeah bro it is California after all
That's a great idea Maybe we could use the the same idea on the wasted space around our highways in the offramp and medians
Solar Panels are very ugly. Lets not spread that to everywhere.
@@geraldbennett7035 they are not ugly duh
I am curious to know if this will have an impact in the following two areas: 1. The cloud formation and hence the rain, since covering these water bodies would mean lesser evaporation. 2. The general temperature in the nearby areas since the breeze from water bodies is a major factor in determining the temperature that is felt on the nearby land areas. Do we have studies/calculations for educating us for these two impacts?
These are interesting questions. I suspect answering questions like this are why California is starting with a small scale test project.
As far as cloud formation, evaporation from sources such as rivers, lakes, and aqueducts are an extremely tiny fraction of overall global evaporation. This type of technology wouldn't have any noticeable affect on precipitation. As for nearby temperatures, wind is still able to flow under the panels and across the water, and while the water would be cooler, this would likely be offset by wind blowing over the panels resulting in a minimal noticeable effect.
Localized effects need massive bodies of water like the Great Lakes.
@@kennethwright5664 Would this change with scale? When in years to come there is no river without cover of panels ?
Exactly, I think ultimately the local environment will get drier without evaporation, and end up needing more water as there's less in the environment
I’m a huge fan of this idea. It is the perfect accompaniment to agrovoltaics.
thanks for this. Specifically your research and insight and the platform that you've built. Two likes!
I’ve been saying that covering the canal running through the high desert in California would save a bunch of water and using solar panels could power the lift pumps easily. Converting the spillway around Glendale to a pipe and using the head pressure to generate electricity too
in france they even monted vertical double sided solar panels oriented east west along the water canals to provide electricity in the morning and evening when horizontal panel mounted on the water canal were not so eficient. in that way they took advantage of the electricity grid already installed for the horizontal panels
I believe it's the best way forward. Costs will continue to accrue, maintenance required, no matter the energy production method. The added ("free") benefit of water/forrest conservation is all I needed to hear. I live in California. We are desperate to keep water, and reduce greenhouse gases. Therefore, my vote is to move forward because the only sacrificial resource is money, and it will be spent regardless. Thank you for the presentation Matt!!
I agree this seems like a good idea, but there is an environmental cost. I will be very interested to see the actual results of the studies. An issue that I do not see discussed in the is the possibility of heavy metal contamination of the water. These areas are primarily used for irrigation of crops or drinking water, both provide a vector to humans. Inevitably, panels will fall into the water, break in hail/wind storms, swept away in floods, poor maintenance of rigid structures extending over 1000s of miles. Another concern is the effect of the wildlife that has created a habitat in and along these canals, whether it be fish, turtles, birds, trees. Finally, the amount of materials that are mined and refined is immense. We, the US, tend to have a blind eye to this process because it isn’t done here. The effects of the mining and refining in China and in Africa are extreme.
@@timframe570 all excellent points sir. Thank you for your perspective. I consider also, the environmental effects of energy generation, either one time, or in perpetuity. Meaning, elinating those in favor of one-time effects on component production. Aren't solar panels primarily silicon?
@@cooltimo The panels themselves are primarily silicon, yes, however they do have other components such as lead. Also the process manufacturing them can leave behind many hazardous materials. There will always be an environmental impact with anything we do and every power source. In my mind, we want to minimize the materials needed and land necessary to generate the power that we need.
@@timframe570 with all technology, they will inevitably get better, and cost less with time's progression. We have to start somewhere, indeed. What say you? Also, do you live in CA too?
Yeah we had 100 billion in budget surplus and the politicians spent it all on checks before election. Yeah we cloud have saved water and generated electricity but decided to give free money while we have crazy inflation.
Arizona would also be a great place for this. Phoenix and the outlining cities are covered in canals
I live in Gujarat and have seen the solar over canals.it is very simple and smart idea. Thanks for the mention.
There is another location where solar panels can be used and be a great benefit both for free energy into people. Throughout our planet we have massive car parking lots and if we were to put solar panel canopies over these parking lots it would provide a huge benefit to the car driver and the cars themselves. I even saw on the website somewhere that one company was proposing such an idea that it has yet to be used and I think it's something that we should seriously consider exploring since the benefit would be great to everyone.
Here in Morris County in NJ, the ice at the indoor ice skating arena is kept frozen by electricity from solar panels on the roof and over the big parking lot. The community college has large portions of its parking lots covered by solar panels. There are many other examples, both public and private. Patagonia was one of the first companies to cover its parking lot in panels (in Ventura, CA). If it works for us in the northeast, think of the benefits in the south and west!
@@mm-qd1ho Thank you for all this cool information especially since I live in NJ. Maybe someday God willing I hope to visit these places. Thank you again and God Bless. :D
There should definitely be some sort of cover for irrigation canals to prevent water loss, with or without the solar bonus it needs to be done, that process should plan with future solar in mind, build the covers using the same or a compatible construction method for the agro voltaics
Our small San Joaquin Valley town in cooperation with our local irrigation district built solar floats on our 1 mile of canals in 2020 to 2022. Our units are tethered floats rather than fixed structures, so they sink and raise with the water level. We also used corrugate aluminum roofing adhered to the backs of the panels to create cooling vanes that stretch down into the canal water. Even though they aren't pretty; we did see operating temperatures drop over 20 degrees F by doing so, and when your Summer temperature often sits between 100 and 110F that makes a big difference for produciton. Like Turlock, which is about 30 miles South of us, our canals are the last-mile delivery canals so they are all the same width and depth, all are made of concrete and have about 1 yard of concrete on each ledge. Our community has been sort of a test bed for the Turlock project so consider us the Alpha test while Turlock is the Beta test before the State considers a full roll out. Our solution to keeping panels clean is battery powered water pumps charged by solar and then washing the panels with canal water. We even have a couple of test modules that are essentially those floating solar water fountains and they actually do a pretty decent job because out here in the land of orchards, dust and pollen are murder on solar panels.
I love these ideas that once presented it’s like “Oh yeah, what a great idea that seems like it should have been thought of right away.”
Dear Matt Ferrell, I admire your videos and look forward to every new video. I am a chemistry teacher, and I love to explain some of my lectures through videos to make complex ideas easy, perceptible and funny for my students. Please, could I ask with what programm/softaware do you make your videos? I am looking forward to your response! Many thanks in advance! PS: Any help/suggestions from other readers are much appreciated!
This definitely feels like something we should get good at doing. Even if isn't the one-stop fix that it sounds like it could be, it seems like something we should have in the mix. I'm curious if any of these installations need to provide boat access? Or do they just target canals that don't use boats?
At least in California these canals are not used for any recreational activities. There is no boating or swimming for example. They are off-limits to the public and only used for water conveyance.
In all of the examples we found the didn't accommodate for boats because they aren't used for that function in any case. But there's nothing preventing from building elevated platforms for that use case.
All reservoirs and canals that were not made for transport are generally off limits for any activities for safety, and possibly to keep the water clean. But various workers use boats for checking them and doing maintenance work, so I the panels would have to leave clearance under them. Being able to use a boat would also make inspecting, cleaning and repairing the panels easier, so it makes sense to design for that. Speaking of keeping water clean, I recall there was a case when someone was caught on security camera pissing into a reservoir and basically the whole lake was emptied on basis that it's meant for drinking and people would freak out even though there is supposed to be a purification plant between the reservoir and your tap. However, same video also showed an animal going for a swim in that same water and nobody cared about it...
@@UndecidedMF Well, there you've opened the ball- what about the space over say 17,000 miles of Interstate hwys? Even in relatively rural areas, the ISH system right of ways are 50-75 meters wide. Don't know about the heat problem, though. FR
In India, these canals aren't used for transport or recreation and most of the (older) solar panels are put on trusses so that is automatically not possible
I really like this approach to a couple of on going problems. Clean energy, saving water and helping keep the water clean.
👍
in france they even monted vertical double sided solar panels oriented east west along the water canals to provide electricity in the morning and evening when horizontal panel mounted on the water canal were not so eficient. in that way they took advantage of the electricity grid already installed for the horizontal panels
I feel like Turlock is a very good choice for that program. I’m fairly familiar with the area, being a native of the county. There is certainly a lot of canals and agricultural work going on there. So it makes a LOT of sense to start there.
This video gave me hope that there are people out there trying to come up with solutions to the problems we are facing today. Overall I think not just California, but Arizona and Nevada could benefit from this kind of system. Only time will tell if this idea succeeds.
Just thinking of your own country, eh? Shows your ignorance of the need in other places. Please educate yourself.
Nevada doesn't have any active canals that constantly flow water. There several hundreds of miles of flood control channels, but a flowing river situation like that just doesn't happen out here. The only exception to a constantly flowing water system is the Las Vegas Wash which is not in a canal.
I want to see more water-cooled solar awnings over residential driveways. And I want to see that water, go to the hot water heater after it cools the panels.
Good thought. Matt discussed NPV. (An economics term many people fail to properly consider.) The high cost of pipes, motors, control systems, heat exchangers, etc. would likely reduce the NPV to a NEGATIVE number.
man, your pun delivery is unmatched, i love it
India also has massive amounts of terrains covered in mountains. As the ground rises the wind gains speed and temperature goes down. Wind in remote areas would be a pretty good option.
I like the idea as I also like the idea of using beaver like created wetlands which slow the runoff of rivers (decreasing the overall amount of water flowing into saltwater bodies) and increase the levels of the natural water table. I would be thinking there might be unforeseen effects of reducing natural evaporation in the surrounding environment. This is especially true in dessert areas, which uses condensation collection during the cool of the night for habitat that live in these arid areas.
That’s a good point, but keep in mind this isn’t preventing “natural” evaporation. It’s preventing water loss through evaporation from man made canals. The natural desert habitat never had a canal running through it. Humans put it there.
@@willymac5036 while true, we also chopped down all the vegetation (shrubs and trees) that would have provided natural evaporation for those areas downwind. I don't think in the grand scheme of things the amount of evaporation will matter since global warming is increasing the capacity of water storage in the atmosphere leading to less precipitation in regions that normally only gets a little bit. But in areas that gets moderate rain, it is possible that they will get an increase precipitation. (large region precipitation patters is hard to predict). currently weather isn't prediction but more of looking at climate patterns regionally and extropolating a few days in advance.
Well no need better use barriers in farm lands raised upto 2 ft water will godown into underground
i definitely think vegetation buffers for canals is the way to go but this is also a cool idea. i think if the power of solar was more consistent (i.e. better storage) then i would totally prefer this one but as it stands i think i'd rather any given municipality install thicker vegetation buffers around canals
Yes - build more batteries (storage) - nothing says 'green' like billions of batteries and no discussion on the downstream impacts mass battery manufacturing, mass solar panel manufacturing, etc. will cause... But thoughts are fun and without consequence.
@@benharper1087 wasn't trying to say we should build more batteries, meant that IF we had better storage media i'd be down for it
@@benharper1087 There is plenty of discussion on the downstream impacts. That's literaly the entire point of battery recycling. After all its cheaper to build new batteries than to recycle old ones, so the only reason to recycle at all is environmental/sustainability. Tell me what's your solution without massive solar farms and extensive battery banks.
This seems like a no-brainer. When I've seen photo's of the fairly new canals in Arizona around the Phoenix area all I can think of is, nice evaporation canals you made there.
As I drive up and down the interstate 5 here in CA, covering the canals is a no brainer.
Around the country in more rural areas large parking fields can be a great spots for panels as well as right over the buildings surrounded by parking fields . It’s about many little projects and few large projects. The big projects should support and supplement many smaller projects not the other way around.
Canada reservoirs are typically covered in ice for a good portion of the year. Since many if not most hydropower reservoirs in the US are also popular recreation areas, there would be some strong pushback there. The canals, old gravel pits, etc would still be viable targets for this.
people don't use the entire reservoir for recreation. Also can't do recreation if it dries up. This is a non-issue and recreation should take a back seat to power generation, water conservation, and the benefits to the overall economy
@@soccerguy2433 Additionally many dams restrict access to the area nearest the dam already for safety concerns. So placement of floatovoltaics in this area doesn't affect the use of the area for recreation.
I agree, this is great idea for man made bodies of water in warm climates, with limited water resources, close to places where people can use the energy. Us Canadians benefit from very cheap green power due to traditional hydroelectric. We don't have canals to protect, and ice snow make floating solar a bit of an non-starter. Maybe in the Okanogan? But can't think of another place it would work?
Hey Matt, just wanted to let you know that I actually live in a condo building which is in fact placed on top of a man-made channel. Before the house was built in 1985, a flour mill with a water wheel stood here. The house was built across the old mill channel. If I want to get to my basement compartment, I have to walk across a bridge under the house.
Great video and great comments for the most part. Evaporation in reservoirs and canals has to be staggering. So any way to minimize that is worth exploring. My main concern is how do you capture and store the electricity? It all comes back to that elusive battery, and there have been many that were so promising. I had high hopes for the iron oxide battery that ESS makes. But they are taking a very long time to generate income . That is not a good sign . Without a relatively low cost battery that has a long life and is fairly efficient no solar project of this magnitude is going to fly.
great idea, I personally think big parking lots should be covered in solar panels so the land becomes dual purpose and the cover can prevent the cars from heating up.
True but theft will probably increase
Personally I think we should get rid of large parking lots and replace them with trees or houses. Either sequester carbon, provide clean air, provide shade, and reduce noise. Or increase more housing options which would reduce prices and you can put solar on roofs.
That’s happening on a lot of parking lots where I live. It’s a great use of space with an added benefit.
As a person who works in a parkinglot i agree it should be covered.
@@UndecidedMF exactly!
I've often wondered why this wasn't done a long time ago. Another place, but without the water evaporation mitigation benefit, would be to install panels on some interstate highway medians. Miles and miles of unused real estate that is close to urban power users.
or along railways. Perhaps switching from diesel trains to an overhead power rail line. All are powered by solar running along or above the railway. The bottom of every train car and freight car could be battery storage to run at night time.
@@MrBadbonesaw Good thought. But considering the NPV of the costs of installing and maintaining a mobile fleet of batteries and electronics would likely make this uneconomical. The major advantages of recycling and storing energy wasted in the frequent braking in cars and trucks doesn’t exist in trains because they rarely use brakes and are already very energy efficient compared to cars, trucks, and airplanes.
@@DM-zq8qy ok disregard the battery storage. I still think overhead powertrain lines with solar arrays placed along the tracks would make sense. There is probably enough land space along the US railway to power the entire country. problem is most of it is in unpopulated areas. This would need to be High voltage DC lines to stretch that far with lower energy losses. It would have to be on the scale of China's High voltage projects.
Sounds like a great idea. Definitely worth exploring.
An interesting idea, but speaking as someone who lives near a "artificial" lake, I can say with a degree of certainty that any floating array will need cleaning on a regular basis. Geese, ducks, and other waterfowl leave an astonishing amount of excrement behind every day, and I can guarantee you they will be more than happy to land on and walk all over those floaing arrays.
Great video Matt. This makes total sense in a country like Australia. We allegedly have 16000 Sq kms of water catchements and the 4th highest water use in the OECD. Would be keen to know the impact to aquatic life.
👍
I'm sure people have thought of this but I didn't hear it addressed in this. As great as the water savings would be to have, how would the reduced evaporation from this end up affecting the water cycle as a whole? In the case of covering all the canals in this way, would that do anything overall to the amount of rainfall a year?
amazing was discussing this with a friend few days back hez doing a seminar abt this
Not enough emphasis on the important matter of corrosion. Yes, the panels do deteriorate when exposed to water. Aside from that, great content, great channel. Upvoted & subscribed.
Depending on how the solar canopies are designed, it would be sensible to design them in such a way that the canals could take advantage of any rainwater runoff directly into the canal or a sort of guttering system that empties directly into the canal.
Right, because a canal does not already collect the rain that falls on it... Don't leave your day job... assuming you even have a job.
@@w8stral You haven't thought that one through properly. If the solar canopies extend over the sides of the canals, water will be lost into the landscape and to evaporation. So please take your brain out of neutral, put it into 1st gear at a minimum, and have less of the extremely imature insulting snark. Thanks.
@@pinkelephants1421 Landowners OWN said land by said canals and they FARM it dear idiot. No, it will not extend over the entire canal let alone over the sides. Apparently you can't even turn your brain on and pretend your "car" can operate without power.
@@w8stral Oh dear. It appears we have ourselves a very nasty Internet troll.
@@pinkelephants1421 Ah, I see, my bad, I stupidly replied to an idiot who does not believe gravity exists over canals
The first thing I was thinking about is what effect all the non evaporated water could have, to the areas that would maybe benefited from that water. Maybe its enough for areas with very little rain to stop raining...
Agreed. While the land around artificial irrigation canals would "go back to its previous state" - is that previous state one we'd want to maintain? If nothing else, there would be greater losses to evaporation during irrigation via sprinklers, potentially leading to irrigation requiring more water.
It's a great and smart idea! Needs to happen for lake Mead and Powell as well!
I love your videos! So far, I like this idea. I would think that the big problem is going to be getting enough of the High End panels made and delivered to the job sites. Are we going to do all of the deliveries with electric trains and trucks?
I am curious if the studies are also looking at developing the infrastructure (floating, steel girders, etc) to withstand flash floods and other natural events, and if so how much this would increase costs for the construction.
In reservoirs and on canals that's not much of an issue which is why they are optimal locations for these installations.
Hey Matt, Question I see a lot of your video's like this that have grand Ideas about using Solar panels to help fix the worlds energy/environmental crisis. My question is, what kind of impact would it have environmentally to create all of the solar panels for some of these well intentioned and possibly ground breaking and world changing projects?
Matt is not a scientific guy. Dont expect anything from him other than his own personal opinion. But if you look up how solar panels are created and assume you would use them en masse like Matt suggests in his videos it would surely be an environmental disaster. He makes good money from youtube so i dont expect him to make any change to his half-baked format anytime soon
@@Rocksteady8519 I don't expect him to get super deep into it... And I enjoy his videos for what they are... High level overviews if proposals and ideas. For me it's a good way to get a lot of information about a subject without needing to know the nitty gritty details. My question was more directed at a possibility of a video that maybe addresses the idea that there are some of these over arching issues with some of the purposes ideas and maybe there are companies or tech that are looking to solve those huge issues.
I’m a Floridian and I find this solution a good fit for our state as we numerous bodies of water and canals and it can help the state deal with the yearly algae blooms.
Very nice exploration. Intriguing concept. I do have a question: How would this solution impact the rain cycle?
Thanks Matt, I really love the idea of modular floating solar arrays, if the floats can be manufactured out of recycled plastics non harmful to fishies & birdies & anchored via cables to the shoreline then it's movable, scalable & eco-aware.
👍
I've been recommending this for years. one idea I also had was cooling the water to further reduce evaporation and reduce algea growth. And using large underwater balloons under hydropower reservoirs. The energy storage would be on site. allow for an artificially increased head height and could be emptied rapidly in emergencies to absorb surprise flood waters.
Would be great if you could look into the solution from Desert Control. They make a clay that retain water in the upper layers of the earth. Water does not evaporate as much and does not disappear deep into the ground
Large puddle ? 🤣🤣🤣 That caught me so off guard I spilled my tea 🤣🤣
I am still undecided. It seems that basic maintenance will be considerably more difficult for canal covering solar, especially if that canal is adjacent to crop fields, which are often quite dusty. I don't think that canals are built to be accessible by maintenance workers either, so there may be issues with accessibility, private property, vandalism, etc.. Floatovoltaics on reservoirs may be better on this front, though, as they would probably be easier to standardize for efficient maintenance.
I grew up on a farm and yes farms can be quite Dusty. You have a reliable water source so use some of that electricity to work pumps in the middle of the night to wash off the panels. Dust problem solved
I wonder if introducing a riparian zone composed of shorter trees would help with this problem. Trees could be selected for ultimate height (to ensure they don't overshadow panels). Even better, they could plant orchard trees (often kept small in stature to make harvesting easier), so they are producing food at the same time. To have a riparian zone surrounding these canals would mop up at least some of the wind-blown dust from ploughed/harvested agricultural areas. It's not like you would need to supply lots more water to support such trees, because they could be watered by some of the extra that is protected from evaporation by the panels in the first place and excess irrigation water deliberately drained back into the canal. Such a scheme would need agreements made between farmers and canal/solar farm architects, but that's not impossible for them to come to such agreements, since canal maintenance crews obviously have some sort of arrangement with farmers already. I'm not so sure there would be much in the way of vandalism, since a lot of these canals pictured look very out of the way and not worth the journey for your average vandal (likely to be young, not very bright, not wealthy, and probably could be caught in the act on a basic camera security system). Also, sufficient fencing could be added to protect areas of solar panels nearer habitation zones as and when they are built. It would be a small initial price to pay for many years of service.
@@debbiehenri345 Thanks for replying so thoughtfully! You haven't convinced me, as it seems that what you propose would add even more to maintenance requirements, but I appreciate the conversation all the same. Regarding vandalism, yes, that would probably be more of an issue where the canals run near or through towns or cities, and I guess that there are already anti-vandalism measures taken there to protect the canals themselves, so you do have a good point.
@@perryhunter129 I like that!
This makes me wonder, If you place those floating solar arrays next to a hydropower dam, could you also convert access energy into pumping water back up into the dam, instead of other storing technologies? Feels like another win-win.
Even in areas that don't use pumped hydro it would still give the opportunity to share the hydro power grid tie for high power distribution saving on the infrastructure build out.
Every hydropower plant would be pumped hydro with solar, they would just run the turbines less when solar can meet some of the electricity needs, saving water for later.
@@bftjoe didn't think about that. Makes sense.
@@dotantsur496 you are soo d...
Wish AZ would jump on this. Saw the use in India and thought it's perfect for what we do. So many canals!
Sure, installing panels over a canal might be more expensive, and the cost saved on water might not be worth the power generated, but you save huge upfront on land acquisition, clearing and right of way costs. And in a place like India where land acquisition is a challenging task since farmers are unwilling to give away their lands, these projects bring in more benefit in the form of more water and power to irrigate lands, power companies and of course for the environment. Also, it's good for food security and energy security of a country that doesn't have any meaningful oil/gas reserves or even any transitional form of energy until renewables technology catches up to scale. Like you said, win, win, win. Only concern still is the eco-friendly manufacturing of solar panels, access to rare earths. Coming to maintenance the automated systems are already available and seems like a good bet. Coming to floating photovoltaics I feel like the power generated can be used with a pumped storage type hydropower system where we use solar to pump the water and use as potential energy or battery, avoids using battery storage altogether which requires rare earths to manufacture, of course might not work for all plants and geographies. But every bit helps the planet. Drops can make an Ocean.
I often say "We need to implement any solution to mitigate our changing climate problems ... optimize costs later when we can catch our breath". Just saying. And combined with Matt's info presented here, there's positive side effects to be had.
Great idea I had it about ten years ago. Also thought using highway medians and any type of easy accessible spaces to keep management easy. I also have the idea of sea water sprinklers (wind turbines) that also spray water to help water evaporate off the ocean. It would create cooler temperatures, generate energy for a turbines normal function. The water evaporates before it is back to water and create a hardier source of water for rain clouds to form. Maybe we can break the cycle of a drought. Turn it on when water is needed. Know need for desalination because salt won't evaporate. Brine falls back to ocean. Salt stays in the ocean and clouds carry fresh water inland and you can find suitable places and times to do it. In another ten years do that video can't wait. 😁
I would add to the idea and make the canal a dome, similar material to what they make the new water pipe out of, I forget the name cross-linked polyethylene I think. That way any water that does evaporate collects on the surface and drips back down. Then cover that with solar panels. Concrete was an okay medium to transfer water, but it is dated, not that flexible, can/will crack and leak etc.. I don't know the logistics behind it or the economics but if people want to keep living... kind of need water. I don't know who makes these decisions or what but they need to get together and ask all the questions. Look at all the solutions. Put out a vote and get something going before its really to late.
Eisenhower once said that if you have an intractable problem, you can sometimes find a solution by combining it with yet another intractable problem. The reasons for this are really well illustrated by this video.
It sounds very interesting. Good luck guys )
The next issue that should be looked at for Lakes and Rivers, aquatic life, like plants and fish. Reducing the light intake, will definitely hurt and reduce potential life in these locations. Depending on the type of Solar panel, targeting a specific light spectrum might help, but also could have issues again of striping out the select light needed.
most man made canals dont have any ecosystem.
When fully exposed to the sun the algal blooms that occur reduce the available light and oxygen levels far more than the solar panels would, as long as it is not a solid sheet that excludes all light I don't see it being a problem.
SHOULD ADDING SOLAR PANNELS ON TOP OF A HYDRO DAM ALSO COOL THE WATER AND HELP TUBINES RUN WITH MORE LOAD IF COLD WATER IS HEAVIER THAN HOT WATER?
Great video, thank you very much! What's the source of the comment in 4:10, regarding the potential for covered reservoirs in Brazil and Canada? I'm from Brazil myself so I'm very interested 😁
In Singapore, we have floating solar panels in reservoir and also near the coast in the northern part of the country.
I think California is having a major issue with figuring out what to do with solar panels at the end of their life cycle. They are being overwhelmed from the results of their subsidy programs that started about 2 decades ago. You really don't want the materials their made of ending up in landfills. Would be interesting to see a video on that.
We have the ability to recycle to about 95% reclaimable materials. The problem is that actually there are not enough panels reaching end of life to do it efficiently yet so they are piling up until there are enough to make it worth while to do a processing run.
I did touch on it in this one: undecidedmf.com/why-arent-solar-panels-recycled-yet/. But should revisit the topic (it's been on my to-do list).
I have no idea how long you have worked on this, but any idea has worth. I was out west in the late 70's and heard constantly about the water problems. I found, after returning eastward, no one knew anything about it. My idea was to pipe water where needed. Example: you have a flood in Tennessee, send that water west or wherever needed. I still think something like that must happen, eventually. It would make major jobs nation wide to bury the pipes, but the benefit would last centuries. Hey, whatever works!
Have fun with that until all of the greenies/eco-terrorists (libs) come out protesting/blocking/destroying those water pipelines stretching across the country - indigenous land something something save the trees something something. A single oil pipeline = bad... hundreds of water pipelines = good...
@@benharper1087 Hey, without water you have nothing to eat and nothing to drink, you have fun with that. You forgot all the people that oil pipeline was going to effect. Soon we will have to do without oil, but you won't last without water for 5 days. No water = no.plants or animals to eat and no humans to maintain... To move water from a place it can cause devastation to a place who can use water to a benefit is beyond me why you can't understand that. Go drink some 95.
There are already hydrocarbon pipeline networks in place that carry multiple products. I see water as another product. What little I know is a product is separated by a buffer product that does not mix with the first and second product. The destination swiitches the flow as approoriate.
The water is needed where it is. Water needs to sink into the ground and reenter the ground water table. Floods are so infrequent and small that trying to move flood water around is not only useless but impossible. There is simply far too much water moving at once to capture or transport. And the 99.999999% of the time when there isn't a flood, all that infrastructure you spent a huge amount of money on is unusable.
@@GeorgeMonet All of the rainwater does not infiltrate into the ground and certainly does not reach the groundwater table. Most of the rainwater actually flowes to rivers and sea as surface runoff. You need standing water so that it gives enough overload pressure, for the water to infiltrate deep enough into the groundwater saturated zone. And that's the reason why rain gardens are promoted to slow down and collect for groundwater recharging
Would love to hear your thoughts on MIT's vertical design for solar panels.