Home – Energy – California is covering its irrigation canals with solar panels for clean power, and the shade solves a second problem nobody expected
California’s Central Valley may be heading toward a very different kind of harvest. In the western San Joaquin Valley, the Westlands Water District wants to turn up to 136,000 acres of drainage-impaired and water-constrained farmland into a vast network of solar panels, battery storage, and transmission lines.
The idea is simple, but the scale is anything but. If fully built, the Valley Clean Infrastructure Plan (VCIP) could add up to 21 gigawatts of clean-energy capacity while giving farmers another way to use land that is becoming harder to irrigate. “This will be the biggest project in the world,” said Jeff Fortune, president of the Westlands board.
Westlands sits in one of America’s most productive farming regions, but water is no longer something growers can count on the way they once did. Years of drought, limits on surface water, and deeper pressure on underground aquifers have forced many farmers to rethink what can realistically grow there.
That is where California’s groundwater law comes in. The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act was created to stop long-term overpumping, and critically overdrafted basins must reach sustainability by 2040. In practical terms, that equals less pumping and, for many farms, less land in production.
Some of the land targeted for solar already struggles with drainage problems and salty soil. Instead of leaving those acres idle, Westlands and its supporters are pitching sunlight as a different kind of crop.
“We’re harvesting the energy of the sun and producing electricity,” said Jeremy Hughes, a Westlands board member and fifth-generation farmer. It is a tidy phrase, but the stakes are not tidy at all. For growers, this is about water deliveries, field decisions, and the electric bill that comes with moving water across a farm.
California also changed the legal landscape. AB 2661 authorizes Westlands to generate solar photovoltaic electricity, build storage and transmission infrastructure, use power for its own operations, and sell surplus electricity, though it does not allow the district to sell electricity at retail.
Solar panels will get the attention. The bigger prize may be the wires.
Westlands says the project would include the transmission backbone needed to deliver clean power from the San Joaquin Valley to California’s grid. Its VCIP website describes the system as a long-term framework for solar generation, battery storage, and transmission across the district.
That matters because California’s grid is already under pressure from rising demand, hot summer afternoons, and the steady push to bring more renewable energy online.
In May 2026, the California Independent System Operator approved a transmission plan with 38 projects, including work meant to reduce congestion and support renewable development in the Westlands area.
The proposed 136,000 acres equals about 212 square miles. That is more than four times the size of San Francisco and roughly nine times the size of Manhattan.
At full build-out, the 21-gigawatt figure would put the plan in a category far beyond a local solar farm. Westlands also says the project could support more than 6,000 construction jobs over the decade, though those jobs would not automatically replace farm work one for one.
And that is the human question sitting underneath the engineering plan. What happens to workers whose experience is in tomatoes, lettuce, onions, almonds, or irrigation crews, not solar installation?
For nearby towns, the project could bring jobs, training, tax revenue, and infrastructure money. But residents also want to know when those benefits would arrive, who would qualify, and whether decisions will be made before local voices are fully heard.
AB 2661 requires Westlands to establish a community benefits agreement plan for the Valley Clean Infrastructure Plan and related electrical projects. The law says the plan should give local communities meaningful opportunities to participate and may include job training, local business use, and financial contributions to community development programs.
That requirement is important, but it does not answer every question. If solar revenue arrives years after construction begins, families already dealing with job losses or high electricity bills may not feel relief right away.
No solar farms or transmission lines under the plan have been built yet. The proposal still depends on developers, buyers, grid approvals, local negotiations, and the practical challenge of turning an enormous land-use map into working infrastructure.
The biggest unanswered questions are straightforward. Which utilities or power buyers will sign up? How much electricity will be used locally? When will community benefits start flowing?
For Westlands farmers, the plan is not being framed as a farewell to agriculture. It is being pitched as a tool for survival in a region where water rules are tightening and the old math no longer works.
To sum it all up, California’s water crisis could turn part of its farming heartland into one of the world’s most ambitious clean-energy corridors. Whether that becomes a lifeline for rural communities, or just another transition that leaves people behind, will depend on what happens after the first panels go in.
The official plan materials were published on Westlands Water District.
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