September 12th, 2026
Via Mongabay, a look at how Nepal’s flood disaster puts its hydropower-first strategy, exports to the test: Nepal’s long-held policy of harnessing hydroelectricity and using it for economic growth has met new challenges: potential catastrophic floods in the snow-fed rivers amid rising global temperatures. The Aug. 26 floods that originated on the Nepal-China border, and […]
Read more »Is Covering California’s Aqueducts and Canals with Solar Panels Economical?
August 18th, 2026
Courtesy of the California Policy Center, commentary on the watergy nexus of covering aqueducts and canals: Earlier this week, a respected YouTube channel covering the future of technology and energy released a video exploring the viability of solar panels covering California’s canals and aqueducts. The videos are hosted by Ricky Roy, a California-based mechanical engineer whose channel […]
Read more »June 23rd, 2026
Via the New York Times, a look at a pilot program is building solar panels over irrigation canals to generate electricity. As a bonus, the shade prevents water from evaporating. In California, a sprawling 4,000-mile network of canals winds through citrus orchards and fields of tree nuts, delivering irrigation and drinking water to homes and farms […]
Read more »Uzbekistan Wants Nuclear Energy, But Can It Afford the Water Cost?
April 19th, 2026
Courtesy of The Diplomat, a look at how Uzbekistan is betting on nuclear power to secure its energy future – but it is doing so in one of the most water-stressed regions in the world The Uzbek government’s plan to build a nuclear power plant (NPP) in the Jizzakh region, alongside the creation of a centralized […]
Read more »March 9th, 2026
Via UPenn’s Kleinman Center, a report on the water/energy nexus: Power generation in cities like El Paso, TX is unsustainably consuming local water resources. Fixing this will require retrofitting cooling towers at power plants. What images come to mind when you think of environmental pollution? Likely one of them is a power plant cooling tower. […]
Read more »Powering Farms or Draining Aquifers? Solar Irrigation and the Hidden Costs of Clean Energy
February 5th, 2026
Via UPenn’s Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, a report on solar irrigation and hidden costs of clean energy: In water-scarce farming contexts, solar-based groundwater pumping for irrigation (SGPI) is celebrated for freeing farmers from unreliable diesel and grid power, which enables longer growing seasons and more competitive agricultural production. But this transition does not occur […]
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