The board of California’s largest agricultural water district approved a master plan Tuesday to convert over a quarter of the land in its service area into solar farms, a sign that Central Valley growers are looking for new business as their water sources dry up.
What happened: The board of the Westlands Water District approved the plan to develop 136,000 acres on the west side of the Central Valley into solar farms, complete with new transmission lines and substations at a Tuesday morning meeting in Fresno.
The new master plan, called the Valley Clean Infrastructure Plan, would allow for the development of up to 20 gigawatts of new solar farms, which taken together would be the largest solar installation in the world.
Six of the nine Westlands board members have signed preliminary agreements to allow solar development on their own land and therefore abstained from the vote because of conflicts of interest, district spokesperson Elizabeth Jonasson said. The remaining three voted in favor of the plan in a voice vote on Tuesday.
