Date of Award

Spring 2024

Document Type

Thesis

Publisher

Santa Clara : Santa Clara University, 2024

Department

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering

First Advisor

Hisham Said

Second Advisor

Tracy Abbott

Third Advisor

Sukhmander Singh
Laura Doyle

Abstract

California's agricultural presence is undeniably as impressive as it is important, but there is an ongoing significant challenge that the irrigation systems have grappled with: evaporation loss. Annually, a tremendous 63 billion gallons of water is lost due to evaporation along 4,000 miles of canals within California (source). In response to this issue, a new initiative emerged which is the implementation of solar panel over a section of the irrigation canals near Kettleman City. The team's structure is constructed using a steel cable truss along a 164 foot span. This structure both decreases evaporation and contributes to California's mission to produce clean energy. By harnessing the power of the sun, this project seeks to pave the way for a more sustainable and resilient agricultural future in California.

The state of California, and specifically Central Valley, is under constant threat of drought due to the sporadic precipitation levels associated with its climate. A stable water table is especially essential in such a region, where many of the local communities and their economies are dependent on agriculture. Kettleman City is one such community, and its reliance on a healthy water table is intensified by its dependence on groundwater wells as a source of potable water. Furthermore, to exacerbate the issue of usable water in the Central Valley, water present in open-surface systems, such as irrigation canals, faces risk of evaporation. In order to help alleviate this issue, our design team is proposing a canopy structure adorned with solar panels to be constructed over Blakeley Canal, an irrigation canal just east of Kettleman City. Not only would covering the canal provide shading that reduces evaporation, but this makes aim to make use of underutilized land by producing clean, renewable solar energy. The structure makes use of a light-weight, cable truss design in order to make the project economically viable and scalable.

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