How about a 96-acre floating solar cell facility? Provides shade. Lowers water temperature. Creates electricity. Gender neutral.
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That would be cool and all, but I’m sure there are a still lot of places where it would be cheaper and easier to install solar panels.
Not to mention the potential risk of getting some nasty stuff getting into the drinking water supply when some of the solar cells inevitably break apart. The material for these shade balls was selected in part because it’s less dense than water and thus can’t sink into the reservoir.
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I was thinking, maybe for ghosts.
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OK, here’s the real story:
These balls were originally delivered to Chuck E. Cheese, who rejected them. The delivery driver then dumped them in a nearby lake.
When caught, he concocted this tale of using shade to inhibit algae growth, and THAT is where the mainstream media picked up the story.
#ProbablyFacts
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Kiddie ball pit balls? Well, they have every pathogenic germ there is on them… 
I’m thinking there is an accidentally introduced to the water system plague apocalypse story in there somewhere.
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Some idiot would try to run across it to gain youtube views and drown.
Within a week.
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Holy Shade Balls, Batman!
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Youtube educational videos would announce DARK COLORED BALLS.
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This video really underlined the fact that I know very little.
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It’s really really hard to combine things that have very different purposes. It’s possible, but hard. I mean, gasoline will float on water, too, so they could technically turn this in to a combination gas/water storage tank, too, but uh, not a good idea.
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Sounds like a vague kind of insult.
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Or maybe like this…
… but not.
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Whatever floats your boat.
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Oh, and–and–they keep the birds out.
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What a great piece - so cool to see how the underpinnings of civilization work, and also to get to meet some of the people behind the scenes providing those services and getting a peak into their interesting jobs making it so.
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Ahem…the “expense” would be to install the panels on a floating platform - rather than a rigid platform. You may have heard of the cost of real estate? Where else are you going to get 96 acres close to an urban area - and the grid it would feed - for FREE? This produces electricity and meets the needs of shading the catchment. Scratch them balls.
@ morcheeba Dude, it’s been done.
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It’s the same post, but inflation-corrected.
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