Perdue Farms held an open house on Monday to show off its new solar power project to help power its feed mill in Bridgeville, Delaware. The project includes 6,700 solar panels covering an area about the size of five football fields and generates enough electricity to power more than 175 typical U.S. homes. The panels were installed by Standard Solar and are owned by Washington Gas Energy Services. Each panel generates 235 watts of electricity, which is converted by an inverter from direct current (DC power) to alternating current (AC) power that is used by the feed mill. A joint statement from all three companies said that at peak production, the panels can produce 90 percent of the electricity for the feed mill. Perdue, Standard Solar, and Washington Gas Energy Services signed a 15-year contract for the project, and Washington Gas is reported to have invested about $6 million in the project.
U.S. Senators Tom Carper (D-DE) and Chris Coons (D-DE) were among the open house visitors. Senator Carper said during the open house that the project would reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil by 150,000 gallons a year, in addition to cleaning up the air by not using coal or fossil fuels, and putting people to work maintaining the panels.
