Weimer described the project as a “proof of concept” that generates just 1.7 megawatts of energy, a tiny fraction of the 56 megawatts that they generate with a solar farm in the desert.
But the canal site hosts more than just panels. Bales said they “have instruments out there to measure temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, incoming radiation, outgoing radiation, and a prototype instrument to measure evaporation directly.”
It’s not that simple. It’s a research projects that does more than just solar.
So you need to ask “how much of the grant went into the solar-cover”, and set that up against the value produced (water evaporation, water quality, electricity, etc).
What you did is set the price of the entire research project up against one of its output.