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By; @Kristin Withrow

One of the nation’s largest agricultural water districts, Westlands Water District spans roughly 1,000 square miles — about 614,000 acres — primarily in western Fresno County with a small portion in Kings County. Formed in 1952, its core mission is to deliver reliable and affordable agricultural water to farmers who grow nearly 70 varieties of food and fiber commodities to communities across the country and the world.

That mission has grown more complicated as the state addresses the limitations of an unpredictable water supply.

Allocations from the federal Central Valley Project fluctuate sharply from year to year. At the same time, implementation of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) that requires groundwater basins to reach long-term balance, partly through reducing pumping in areas historically dependent on it. SGMA’s goal — preventing subsidence and protecting infrastructure from damage caused by overdraft — is critical. But for growers within Westlands’ boundaries, the result has been significant land fallowing.

On average, roughly 190,000 acres within the district’s service area are fallowed each year, and 200,000 acres or more have been fallowed each of the last five years. Fallowed ground still carries costs: bank loan payments, weed management, tilling, taxes and general upkeep. What it does not generate is revenue.

District leaders recognized that reality early. Westlands is governed by a nine-member board of directors, each of whom is a farmer within the district. They have lived the volatility of water supply insecurity firsthand. As allocations tightened and groundwater pumping was curtailed under SGMA, the board began exploring alternatives for land that could no longer be farmed consistently.

The answer taking shape is the Valley Clean Infrastructure Plan (VCIP), a large-scale renewable energy initiative that could ultimately encompass up to 136,000 acres of solar development and battery energy storage across the district.

Rather than viewing fallowed land as stranded, the board saw a potential to offset fallowed land while helping the state achieve its clean energy ambitions.

“The whole purpose of this project is to make Westlands Water District more durable and able to provide affordable water for our customers over the long-term,” Assistant General Manager Jose Gutierrez explained. Revenue generated through solar development and energy transmission would not divert the district from its water mission. Instead, it would strengthen it — funding improvements to canals, conveyance systems, storage and other infrastructure that supports agricultural deliveries.

The strategy operates on multiple levels. Farmers who choose to host solar arrays on their fallowed acreage can create a new revenue stream. The district, which also owns some unused property, may sell or lease land to support development. And the state will benefit from additional clean energy generation aligned with California’s ambitious climate goals.

To make the plan viable, legislative adjustments were required. Assembly Bill 2661, carried with the support of Assemblymember Esmeralda Soria, authorized Westlands to own and operate electrical transmission lines — an unusual role for a water district. The bill created a framework that allows the district to build out the backbone infrastructure needed to move power from project sites to the grid.

The VCIP is far more than panels in a field. It includes generation facilities, substations, transmission lines extending to other parts of the state, and battery storage designed to increase grid reliability.

The Westlands Board was deliberate and methodical in its guidance. Directors evaluated the risks of inaction against the long-term sustainability of the district. They weighed how continued fallowing would impact local economies, farmworkers and land values. They also considered how participating in the state’s transition to renewable energy could position Westlands as a proactive partner rather than a bystander.

“We knew we needed alternatives and repurposing for that fallowed land,” Gutierrez said. At the same time, he noted, California’s energy policy direction created a clear opportunity. Aligning the district’s needs with the state’s clean energy targets offered a win-win solution.

To begin, a Program Environmental Impact Report (PEIR) was prepared to evaluate potential impacts and establish mitigation measures. According to district officials, the PEIR process helped address environmental considerations at a broad level, allowing individual projects within the program to move forward more efficiently while remaining compliant.

Now, after years of planning, stakeholder engagement and regulatory work, the district is approaching the point of breaking ground on initial phases. Gutierrez described a phased timeline that builds infrastructure in stages, coordinating power generation with transmission capacity and market demand.

For Westlands, the Valley Clean Infrastructure Plan is not a pivot away from water. It is a strategy born of water scarcity.

By turning underutilized land into an asset, the district aims to stabilize revenues, support growers navigating SGMA’s constraints and reinvest in the infrastructure that delivers water when it is available. In a region impacted by cycles of drought, the board’s approach reflects a broader shift: resilience through diversification.

Looking ahead, Westlands’ leaders see the Valley Clean Infrastructure Plan as a long-term investment in stability — for their growers, their water system and the communities that depend on them. By transforming underutilized land into a source of clean energy and reinvesting proceeds into modernized water infrastructure, the district is positioning itself to operate more efficiently in an era of limited supplies. At the same time, the scale of the project stands to make a meaningful contribution to California’s renewable energy portfolio, helping the state move closer to its climate and reliability goals. For a district founded to deliver water, the vision now extends toward a future where energy and water work together to sustain agriculture in the San Joaquin Valley.