Solar Farms, harnessing our most powerful and abundant natural resource

Here in the lovely Southwest United States there is one thing we have an abundance of - sunshine. While we are already leading the nation in utilizing Solar Power, there is still so much we can do.

Recently I learned of a government initiative in Singapore, an entire country smaller than New York City. With a population of almost 5.5 million people on a small set of islands in SE Asia, space is at a premium and like everywhere else, its residents need power. In order to provide this power, the government of Singapore is looking toward a new technology - floating solar fields.

There is technology that has been developed in Southern France and is currently being tested that would allow for large solar farms to be constructed and placed in reservoirs and other fresh water areas inlets to provide power for nearby municipalities. This has benefits both for the power and water elements. The Solar panels will be able to move thereby always having optimal positioning for solar collection. The panels as well as the cables carrying the collected power will be kept cool by the water, thereby losing minimal power to thermal loss. Also for future adaptations of this solar array, the platforms themselves could be modified to collect wave current power if the fields were put into the ocean or protected bays.

For the water, the solar panels protect the surface of the water from the sun. This vastly lowers water loss to evaporation which will be crucial moving forward specifically here in the arid SW. What little water we do get, we cannot afford to lose to those 100 degree afternoons throughout our endless summers.

Imagine, if you will, something like what is pictured below floating around a couple of coves in Lake Mead, Lake Powell, the LA Reservoir, and countless other water collection facilities in SW. Image the power that could be pulled in year round for our cities in Inland CA, AZ, NV.

Creative solutions like these need to be presented to our newly minted DWP Board, Mayor Garcetti, Gov Brown and all the other officials of our great state that are constantly looking for ways to bring power to our Green State without burning more fossil fuels. We have the solar technology, why not put it to work??

Thanks for listening - Email, Tweet, Facebook message your local Energy/Water supplier and tell them we are in need and there are solutions out there yet to be explored.

Cheers

TJ