Jim Anderson and Lee Adams run Water Wise Solar Solutions, an organization that proports to save water, conserve land, and create energy.
“With less than 5% of Utah Lake, we can generate about two gigawatts of power, which is the equivalent of the three big natural gas plants we have in the valley right now,” Anderson said.
“We need bold and innovative solutions," Adams said. "We need to learn how to build things again."
The technology they specialize in, that they're referring to right now, one that is potentially capable of generating a great deal of power, is called floating solar, also known as floating photovoltaics or "floatovoltaics."
“It is very similar to your normal land based solar, or the solar that you have on your roof. You're using the same panels, and in most cases, you're using similar inverters that you would use on a commercial based land system," Anderson said. "The big difference is the racking is pontoons that float on the water.”
And because floating solar panels sit on water, they avoid land-use conflicts and reduce evaporation from the covered surface, which Adams and Anderson see as a big boost to water conservation in Utah.
“There's continued research, but the ability to save about 80% of those evaporative losses or more is possible, and it becomes part of the solution," Adams said. "Will it ever be all of the water conservation solution? No, but it's an important part of it.”
With a system already in place in Park City at Signal Hill, Adams and Anderson explain that floating solar is generally installed in three location types.
There are 1) industrial locations like water treatment plants and mining catchment facilities, 2) existing hydroelectric dams, thereby generating even more power, and 3) existing, and naturally formed, bodies of water, like for example, Utah Lake.
But this doesn’t mean simply covering the lake in solar panels, the process requires local input and a great deal of planning. Adams and Anderson emphasize that Floating Solar's added benefit in preventing evaporative loss while also generating power cannot be overlooked.
Though they recognize there could be potential impacts to its deployment in larger bodies of water, they welcome research on the topic and are already in touch with USU, BYU, and UVU, because they believe that combating climate change requires thinking outside of the box.
“This is infrastructure that is bold and innovative, and that could be a new part of the solution," Adams said. "We should think big. We need to think big”
For more information on floating solar check out some recent research below:
Frontiers in Water (2025)
Site-specific relationships between algal biomass and floating photovoltaic solar energy in human-made bodies of water
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/water/articles/10.3389/frwa.2025.1614008/full
Journal in Clean Production (2025)
Sustainability assessment of floating photovoltaic (FPV) system
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652625008182?
Water Resources Research (2025)
The Hydrodynamic, Thermodynamic, and Mixing Impacts of Floating Photovoltaics on the Surface of a Lake (WRR, 2025)
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1029/2025WR039917
Hydrological Sciences (2024)
Evaporation reduction and energy generation potential using floating photovoltaic power plants on the Aswan High Dam Reservoir
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02626667.2024.2332625?
Solar Energy (2025)
Floating photovoltaic technical potential: A novel geospatial approach on federally controlled reservoirs in the United States - ScienceDirect
