A public, private, and academic partnership: Landmark energy generation and water conservation project is complete

Turlock Irrigation District recently celebrated the completion of construction of Project Nexus, a first of its kind pilot exploring solar panels over irrigation canals to evaluate water savings, clean energy generation, and land conservation. Blymyer provided engineering services on this landmark project in partnership with Solar Aquagrid, a Berkley-based water conservation advocacy firm, and the California Department of Water Resources.

As a public, private, and academic collaboration, Project Nexus is the first test deployment of solar panels over open canals in the nation. The project includes solar panel canopies installed in two sites over Turlock Irrigation District’s (TID) irrigation canals, ranging from 20-feet wide to 110-feet wide. University of California, Merced has positioned research equipment at both sites to collect baseline data. Located in Stanislaus County, California, the project was completed and commissioned in August 2025.

Integrating energy and water conservation solutions

Project Nexus is a necessary initiative at a time when state mandates call for increased renewable energy sources. Turlock Irrigation District aims to supply customers with 60% renewable energy by 2030, but utility-scale solar requires large amounts of prime agricultural land. For instance, producing 1 megawatt (MW) of solar takes about 5 acres. Through state funding, Project Nexus’s photovoltaic shades over TID’s canals can provide over 1.6MW of renewable power generation while cutting evaporative water loss at the same time. This project will also help researchers predict the potential power generation and water savings from placing solar panels over canals.

Blymyer provided design and engineering services for both the photovoltaics and energy storage, with energy storage incorporated at the narrow-span location through 75kW iron-flow batteries. The total battery energy storage system (BESS) across Project Nexus’s two structures is 800kWh. With experience in engineering distributed generation and utility-scale PV installations, Blymyer’s engineering team designed a system that can utilize existing canal infrastructure to save water, conserve land, and generate renewable electricity.

Installing photovoltaic shade canopies over waterways can present unique challenges for engineers. The wider the canal and the farther it is located from transmission lines, the higher the cost, not to mention tighter benefit margins. Blymyer’s optimized designs include a deep understanding of energy economics, including upfront and long-term costs.

An award-winning pilot project

Project Nexus serves as a proof of concept to further study solar-over-canal design, deployment, and co-benefits on behalf of the state of California using TID infrastructure and electrical grid access. In December 2025, the Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA) presented its fourth annual Excellence in Innovation Award to Turlock Irrigation District for the project.

TID and Project Nexus also received the Edmund G. “Pat” Brown Award from the California Council for Environmental and Economic Balance (CCEEB). CCEEB describes itself as a “nonprofit, nonpartisan coalition of business, labor, and public leaders, which advances balanced policies for a healthy environment and a strong economy.”

Engineering PV and BESS for California’s future

Installing solar panels over canals has several benefits: it can save money and permitting time while maximizing efficiency through irrigation delivery and energy generation. The 1.6MW solar capacity and 800kWh of energy storage can help Turlock Irrigation District meet California’s renewable energy goals without adding cost to their customers.

“We have extensive experience in engineering photovoltaic installations and energy storage systems, but this pilot was a uniquely collaborative project,” says Blymyer Director of Engineering Greg Mazur. “Project Nexus provided our engineers with the exciting challenge of installing PV over an irrigation canal, a prototype for future renewable energy projects.”

Read Blymyer’s previous announcement of Project Nexus. View project details.