Energy and water co-benefits from covering canals with solar panels

In the manuscript entitled, \"Energy and water co-benefits from covering canals with solar panels\", we quantified the evaporation savings and financial performance of over-canal solar in comparison to over-ground solar on land adjacent to canals, using regional-scale hydrologic and cost simulations. We conducted regional hydrologic and techno-economic simulations of solar PV panels covering California’s 6350 km canal network. We examined the net effect on the financial performance of three different solar PV structures at eight different sites along the California network of canals. The three solar PV structures included a ground-mounted system, a steel-truss canal-spanning design that has been deployed in Gujarat, India, and a suspension-cable canal-spanning design that has been deployed in Punjab, India. Our financial performance includes the net present value (NPV) and the levelized costs of energy (LCOE) comparisons of over-canal to ground-mounted designs considered enhanced PV perfo...