Project Nexus Solar Canals

To combat negative effects of climate change, we all need to do our best to reduce the use of fossil fuels, water and land. California is confronting all three of these challenges simultaneously with Project Nexus, a pilot project to:

1. Reduce the use of fossil fuels by deploying solar generation farms with battery storage.
2. Avoid taking land away from agricultural uses by deploying them over existing canals.
3. Conserve water by using solar arrays to cover canals, thus reducing evaporation.

This project is also an unusual nexus of public, private and academic institutions, bringing together the consultancy Solar AquaGrid as project manager, the California Department of Water Resources as operator of the canals and solar farms and the University of California Merced to provide scientific assessment of the project.
Joining us for this episode are ceo and co-founder Jordan Harris, chief creative officer and co-founder Robin Raj.

Jordan Harris co-founded Solar AquaGrid to address one of California's most urgent challenges: water scarcity. Before committing his energy to advancing large-scale sustainability projects, Jordan had a background as a social impact entrepreneur and music business executive, including co-founding and chairing Virgin Records US, as well as leadership roles at Sony Music and A&M Records. Jordan launched many high-profile projects and pro-social initiatives – among them, co-founding Rock The Vote to engage young people in the political process by engaging the entertainment community. Jordan saw the dual-use opportunity hiding in plain sight long before anyone else was ready to act on it, and led Solar AquaGrid in commissioning the University of California Merced 2021 research study that sparked Project Nexus. After nearly a decade of advancing the water-energy nexus from concept to construction, Project Nexus is the proof of concept he hopes will unlock replication across California and beyond.

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In 2017, Robin Raj joined Jordan to co-found Solar AquaGrid to help conserve water and land, and generate renewable energy at scale by reimagining our water/energy infrastructure and covering large swaths of California’s exposed canals with solar canopies. As an award-winning creative director, veteran of purpose-driven communications, and founder of Citizen Group, Robin has harnessed the power of media, storytelling, and community engagement throughout his career to advance social responsibility, sustainability, and climate action for some of the world’s best-known brands and organizations for three decades – from Amnesty International, Bloomberg Philanthropies, NRDC, Sierra Club, Rock the Vote, and World Wildlife Fund, to Levi's, Major League Baseball, NBC Universal, Stanford Medicine, and Walmart Sustainability program.

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In this episode, we cover such topics as:

• The scale of California's canal system, stretching 4,000 miles in total.
  
• How Project Nexus is funded through the California's general fund.
  
• How Project Nexus will be evaluated. 

For more information on Project Nexus and the organizations running it, see:

• ​Solar Aquagrid - Project Nexus
• Turlock Irrigation District - Project Nexus
• University of California Merced - Project Nexus