California farmers are planting solar panels as water supplies dry up

[jpak]

https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-agriculture-farmlands-solar-power-20190703-story.html

MARICOPA, Calif. — Jon Reiter banked the four-seat Cessna aircraft hard to the right, angling to get a better look at the solar panels glinting in the afternoon sun far below.

The silvery panels looked like an interloper amid a patchwork landscape of lush almond groves, barren brown dirt and saltbush scrub, framed by the blue-green strip of the California Aqueduct bringing water from the north. Reiter, a renewable energy developer and farmer, built these solar panels and is working to add a lot more to the San Joaquin Valley landscape.

“The next project is going to be 100 megawatts. It’s going to be five times this size,” Reiter said.

Solar energy projects could replace some of the jobs and tax revenues that may be lost as constrained water supplies force California’s agriculture industry to scale back. In the San Joaquin Valley alone, farmers may need to take more than half a million acres out of production to comply with the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, which will ultimately put restrictions on pumping.

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[SHRED]

1. I don't care for centralized energy production

But I guess they need to do what they need to do.

[msongs]

2. weak politiciians in CA support corporate solar. should be requiring solar on every roof

that handle a solar setup first

[SHRED]

3. New construction solar is required

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/california-becomes-first-state-require-solar-panels-new-homes-n872531