Perdue Farms launches massive solar project

Nothing about chicken farming is small in Delaware.

So when third generation chicken farmer Jim Perdue, owner of Perdue Farms chicken processing company, recently went solar to power his feed mill and grain facility, the launch in Bridgeville attracted distinguished guests like Senators Tom Carper and Chris Coons for a solar open house as he officially unveiled of the super-scale solar project.

With more than 6, 270 solar panels covering a distance of nearly five football fields, officials said on a sunny day this solar project would be capable of providing as much as 90 percent of Perdue’s power, or the equivalent of powering 175 U.S. households for a year.

The project was made possible through a partnership of not two, but three individual businesses, including Standard Solar, an engineering and development firm; Washington Gas Energy Services, the financier of this alternative energy investment; and Perdue Farms, the beneficiary.

Though Standard Solar was the company responsible for building the arena of solar panels and engineering the project, officials said the solar panels are actually owned by Washington Gas Energy Services, the financier who will sell solar power from the panels to Perdue Farms.

“This is the largest (solar project) on one single site so far,” Harry Warren, president of Washington Gas Energy Services, said. “We have a similar project underway in Salisbury with a possibility for more across the Delmarva Peninsula.”

This was just the first phase of solar farming for Purdue, representatives said. By October, Perdue Farms has plans to launch a second solar power system at corporate headquarters, in Salisbury, Md. as part of their focus on environmentally-friendly farming and stewardship. After the second launch, Perdue Farms reports the company will have as many as 11,000 solar panels at work, creating an estimated combined average of 3,700 megawatt hours of electricity.

Coons, who is also a member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy, said he believes Delaware is leader in alternative energy and spoke of the partnership that made the project possible. He highlighted the importance of agriculture in Delaware’s past and future.

“Partnership allows agriculture to get back in the black in black,” Coons said. “Who understands solar power better than a farmer?”

Meanwhile, Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control Secretary Collin O’Mara remarked about the positive impact that the Perdue company has had in the past and the wise investments the new partnership is in agriculture and energy resources for the future in Delaware.

“We have seen this company make great investments in environmental policy and economic development,” O’Mara said. “And in these tough economic times, we’ve seen this great partnership that makes these investments possible.”