Perdue Announces Massive Solar Energy Project

In Maryland, one of the poultry industry's leading companies has announced plans to install more than 11,000 solar panels. Once it's completed, the project will become one of the largest commercially-owned solar power systems on the East Coast.

Installation of the multi-million dollar solar project is expected to begin in April. When it's completed next fall, the panels will stretch the equivalent of 10 football fields across the rooftops of Perdue's Salisbury-based headquarters and the company's main poultry feedmill in Bridgeville, Del.

The project has been two years in the making, and marks one of the largest steps towards the green energy movement by one of the oldest industries on the Eastern Shore.

"It's a win-win: It's good for the environment and it's good for energy costs," says Steve Schwalb, the company's vice president of environmental sustainability.

He says Perdue has always strived to instill progressive initiatives, like this solar project, to set itself apart from an industry that has been accused of being one of the region's biggest polluters.

Perdue says the solar panels will help produce clean energy that's equal to more than 4.5 million gallons of gasoline.