Join us for this informative webinar presentation to learn how California’s ongoing drought spurned the innovative “Project Nexus” – a proof-of-concept project to demonstrate the benefits of solar panel “canopies” atop water canals.
In 2021, Brandi McKuin, then a University of California, Merced graduate student, led a study on the multiple benefits of constructing solar panels over water conveyance infrastructure- from reduced rates of evaporation to an increase in renewable power generation, among others. Now, the study is becoming a reality, with Turlock Irrigation District being the first in the nation to pilot this type of project. Join us to learn more about the project and anticipated benefits from the implementation team: Solar AquaGrid, University of California at Merced, and Turlock Irrigation District.
About Our Speakers
Brandi McKuin
Brandi McKuin, Assistant Project Scientist, University of California at Merced is the lead author of the research on which Project Nexus is based. McKuin received her Ph.D in environmental systems from UC Merced, where she completed a bachelor’s degree in environmental engineering. She has worked as the technical lead of several multi-disciplinary projects related to the food-water-energy nexus with scientists from NOAA and NASA.
Josh Weimer
Josh Weimer, External Affairs Manager at Turlock Irrigation District, oversees the District's Government Affairs advocacy, Communications, and Energy Services teams. In addition to his advocacy in Sacramento and Washington D.C., Josh works on special projects including the relicensing of the Don Pedro Project, the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, Project Nexus, TID’s Water and Power Podcast, and the SWRCB’s Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Update. Josh provides regular counsel to TID’s senior management in several areas of public policy and strategic planning, most recently including the support of emerging technologies in the water and energy sectors.
Jordan Harris
Jordan Harris, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, has been a long-time leader in sustainability, using the power of popular culture to shape social change. Today, as CEO of Solar AquaGrid, Jordan is focused on the critical issue of conserving our most precious resource – water – by accelerating innovative infrastructure solutions to create greater climate resilience in an age of increasing drought. Harris' curiosity about California's exposed canals led to commissioning the UC Merced research study that sparked the Project Nexus, the project currently underway in the Central Valley to cover large sections of canals with solar arrays.
Registration
Registration for this event is free for AWWEE members and up to two guests (individuals new to AWWEE, please). Non-member registration is $20.