Note to readers •This story is made possible through a partnership between The Salt Lake Tribune and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization.
A novel idea to both conserve water and generate power surfaced on Capitol Hill earlier this month.
Rep. Hoang Nguyen, D-Salt Lake City, joined representatives with Utah-based Water Wise Solar Solutions, advocating for floating solar panels across Utah water bodies. The panels could help slow evaporation on lakes and reservoirs while also supplementing the grid with some much-needed electricity, Nguyen said.
“It’s something that’s intriguing to me,” Nguyen said, speaking to the Legislative Water Development Commission on Jan. 9. “We have to think outta the box. We have to be creative.”
No bills or draft legislation have been introduced to advance the idea of floating solar, but the notion sparked bipartisan interest among commission members.
Prolonged dry conditions and overconsumption have caused both the Great Salt Lake and Lake Powell in the Colorado River watershed to shrink to record lows in recent years. Meanwhile, a surge in demand for artificial intelligence, data centers and electrified transpiration are putting unprecedented pressure on power generation.
The Great Salt Lake loses nearly 3 million acre-feet a year to evaporation, representatives with Water Wise Solar Solutions told the commission, while reservoirs around the state lose a collective 1 million acre-feet.
The company seeks not just to conserve water with solar panels, which could shade waterbodies from the summer heat, but to conserve land for other economic and environmental uses other than sprawling solar farms.
“This has already been done around the country,” Lee Addams with Water Wise Solar told lawmakers in a presentation.
He presented photos of solar arrays on storage ponds in California and New Jersey, along with a new cluster of panels floating on the Signal Hill Pond near Park City. The latter project was installed so local utilities could prevent algal growth before water is fed into a treatment plant, The Park Record reported. The array helps power the water filtration process.
Solar panels at ponds near treatment plants and industrial sites are a “low-hanging fruit,” Addams said, but the state could install much bigger projects.
Solar on reservoirs could especially be useful when paired with existing transmission lines connected to hydropower dams, including those managed by agencies like the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the company representatives said.
“[Where] we would love to see some support from the Utah Legislature is helping us work with the federal government and allowing us to protect our own water resources, as well as generate power,” said Jim Andersen, founder of Water Wise Solar.
The most ambitious plans, however, call for panels on Utah’s biggest natural water bodies — Utah Lake and the Great Salt Lake. Large solar projects there could generate up to 1 gigawatt, Addams said.
“There are no illusions that the Great Salt Lake and Utah Lake aren’t going to be difficult,” Addams said, noting potential complications with protecting wildlife. “But those are also our biggest targets.”
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) A rare sight lights up the sky as a solar flare strikes the planet and the northern lights are reflected in the shores of the Great Salt Lake on Saturday, May 11, 2024.
Gov. Spencer Cox has sought to more than double the state’s energy output over the next decade through his “Operation Gigawatt.” Cox calls it an “all-of-the-above” strategy that explores both traditional and innovative solutions.
The parts of the Great Salt Lake closest to transmission lines and population centers also happen to be areas like Farmington Bay, Bear River Bay and the Ogden Waterfowl Management Area that are most productive for migrating waterfowl and the invertebrates they eat.
“I’ve heard some solar panel situations can be determinantal to birds,” said Rep. Scott Chew, R-Jensen, following the floating solar presentation. “Our water bodies have a lot of birds that come in.”
Around 12 million birds visit the Great Salt Lake every year, representing more than 300 species. They depend on the saline ecosystem’s unique food chain, especially brine flies and brine shrimp.
Andersen told the commission that birds enjoy nesting beneath solar panels, based on the company’s research of other floating power projects. But he conceded that the state would need to conduct a study to reduce impacts.
Lawmakers noted that sprawling panel arrays could also interfere with recreation on both natural lakes and popular reservoirs.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Boats on Jordanelle Reservoir on Saturday, July 19, 2025.
Scott Paxman, general manager of Weber Basin Waster Conservancy District, called panels a “big deterrent” for boats and water skiing on some of the bigger reservoirs his agency operates, like Pineview and Willard Bay. Arrays might make sense on smaller sites, Paxman added, but those reservoirs need to be drained and cleaned on a regular basis.
Projects can be designed with that in mind, Andersen said.
“They don’t remove them,” Andersen said. “They just float ‘em to the other side of the pond ... and clean underneath.”
While some commissioners seemed skeptical about placing panels on lakes and reservoirs, they indicated it could be a good solution over canals to both prevent evaporation and smother water-sucking weeds. Weber Basin is already exploring such projects, Paxman said.
Trevor Nielson, general manager of the Bear River Canal Company in Box Elder County, said he wasn’t sure panels over his canals would pencil out financially.
He said that public utilities should be involved in the discussions “so that the amount paid out for the power provided is sufficient.”
“Otherwise it’ll be a great bill and a great thing, but it won’t be widely adopted,” added Nielson, whose canal company of mostly agricultural shareholders is the biggest water user on the Bear River, the Great Salt Lake’s largest tributary.
The power payout may make economic sense when combined with the value of water irrigators save, noted Commission Chair Keven Stratton, a Republican House member representing Orem.
“We need to look at an analysis,” Stratton said, “of the value of the water created per acre” by shading solar panels.
Floating solar farms can also lower water temperatures, Andersen noted, facilitating healthier streams and lakes for aquatic life, including native fish.
“As we all know,” Andersen said, “it’s getting slightly hotter than it used to be.”
Recent research from Oregon State University found that while floating solar farms can lower water temperatures, impacts to local ecologies within the waterbodies remain largely unknown. They can have varying impacts on aquatic environments, depending on water depth and circulation.
In an interview, FRIENDS of Great Salt Lake executive director Lynn de Freitas said she is wary of the idea of floating solar panels on the massive lake.
“The infrastructure is going to be hammered by the conditions,” de Freitas said.
The hypersaline nature of the Great Salt Lake corrodes metal. Its dense water is also prone to wave action and floods that can take a toll on infrastructure.
“The maintenance,” de Freitas said, “would be incredible.”