5 ms·

Evaporation or algae growth? I don't think anyone shades any kind of municipal reservoir to avoid evaporation.

• geph2021 3y ago
  correct. It's generally not feasible to shade such a large area over water. But evaporation does take its toll on reservoir water. There was a proposal not long ago to shade the canal carrying water from Northern California to Southern California. Reducing evaporation was one of the touted benefits[1]. A study by the University of California, Merced gives a boost to the idea, estimating that 63 billion gallons of water could be saved by covering California’s 4,000 miles of canals with solar panels that could also generate 13 gigawatts of power. 1 - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/solar-panels-built-over-water-canals-seem-like-a-no-brainer-so-why-arent-they-widespread https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/solar-panels-built-over...
• rplnt 3y ago
  Not even directly that I think, it's to prevent chemicals that are used to stop algae growth to interact with sun.
• thamer 3y ago
  Shading is used in California to prevent evaporation, see for example the well-documented use of "shade balls": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shade_balls https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shade_balls Their use in Los Angeles was covered in a Veritasium video that was all over YouTube for a while (97M views): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxPdPpi5W4o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxPdPpi5W4o The estimate given when they were added in 2015 – in the middle of a record drought – was that they would prevent the loss of 300 million gallons of water each year.
  • closewith 3y ago
    Hmm, it does seem from your link that while evaporation was a benefit, the reason was regulatory?