News | The New York Times | June 2026

California Needs Water and Clean Power. It Might Have a Fix for Both.

In California, a sprawling 4,000-mile network of canals winds through citrus orchards and fields of tree nuts, delivering irrigation and drinking water to homes and farms across the state.

The canals are critical in an increasingly arid part of the country. But what if they could help fulfill another urgent need: renewable energy?To test that idea, researchers, private enterprise and a public utility in the Central Valley are installing solar panels atop the man-made waterways.