Young expressed optimism upon reviewing a Colorado study that detailed potential water savings from floating solar installations. “407,000 acre feet from one state,” he noted, hoping it would draw significant attention.
Cole Bedford, chief operating officer of the Colorado Water Conservation Board, stated via email that achieving such water savings would necessitate the use of more than 100,000 acres of surface water. He added that implementing floating solar on some reservoirs could undermine their recreational appeal. “In certain cases, a floating solar system would diminish the recreational value such that it would not be appropriate,” Bedford explained. “In other instances, it might be possible to find a balance between recreation, power generation, and water conservation.”
Currently, Colorado does not have plans to initiate additional projects following this study, with Bedford emphasizing that floating solar technology is not a comprehensive solution to the ongoing negotiations surrounding the Colorado River.
“While floating solar is one of the options available for water conservation, the true answer to the challenges confronting the Colorado River Basin lies in a transition to supply-driven, sustainable practices and operations,” he asserted.
Major cities in the West, including Phoenix and Denver, depend on Colorado River water transported over extensive infrastructure to reach residents located hundreds of miles from the source. Water managers in these urban centers, echoing sentiments from state officials, have considered floating solar technologies but believe that current versions remain too immature and financially burdensome for practical implementation in the United States.
Lake Pleasant, which stores a significant amount of the Central Arizona Project’s Colorado River water, is also a popular recreational area, which complicates the potential for floating solar installations.
Credit:
Jake Bolster/Inside Climate News
In Arizona, the Central Arizona Project (CAP) is responsible for managing much of the Colorado River water distributed to Phoenix, Tucson, tribal communities, and other areas in southern Arizona through a 336-mile canal system traversing the desert, along with Lake Pleasant, which can hold up to 811,784 acre-feet of water.
Although CAP is monitoring the developments related to solar installations over canals, Darrin Francom, CAP’s assistant general manager for operations, power, engineering, and maintenance, stated that there are no immediate plans for solar projects over its canal network or Lake Pleasant. This is partly due to the fact that the surface water rights belong to the city of Peoria.
