SALISBURY, Md.- Roughly 10 months up and running, WBOC's solar power system in Salisbury has already produced more than 10-million kilowatts of power, according to Bryan Russo, the commercial sales manager for Ultra Solar Wind Solutions of Ocean City.
In November 2019, Draper Holdings made the switch to green energy usage, powering WBOC with its three acres of solar panels. The solar farm is located right behind WBOC’s building at 1729 N. Salisbury Blvd.
Laura Baker, the vice president and COO of Draper Holdings, the parent company of WBOC, first proposed the project in 2018. Baker said the company's board of directors quickly approved the project, which broke ground in March 2019. The goal, Baker said, was to find an environmentally-friendly alternative to power the station.
"That type of a system would basically produce 1.4 million kilowatts in a year," Baker said. "That's enough to handle our entire energy needs at the Salisbury facility."
A point of pride for Baker and Draper Holdings is that the entire solar power system is comprised of parts made in the USA. In working on the system, Baker felt it was important to invest in a local company.
Not only has it already produced more than 1-million kilowatts of power thus far, Russo noted that the system has saved or reduced more than 1.5 million tons of CO2 from the atmosphere.
The project is the first of its kind in Salisbury city limits, according to Baker. It is believed to be the only system of its kind that fully powers a television station on the East Coast.
“It’s important that we continually make efforts to limit our environmental impact," said Molly Draper Russell, president and CEO of Draper Holdings. "We hope that we can serve as an example to other local businesses in moving toward affordable green energy options.”
"I think this is really a groundbreaking project for Salisbury and the Delmarva region," added Russo. "You need pioneers and you need trend setters to lead the community in a direction of sustainability. In this case I think WBOC has been a leader for decades."
Russo added that with the switch to green energy, WBOC will eliminate 27,000 tons of CO2 from its footprint over the course of the system's lifespan, which is the equivalent of planting more than 600,000 trees.
WBOC welcomes the community to view our commitment to the environment through our website wbocsolar.com.
WBOC-TV is locally owned and operated by Draper Holdings. Properties include WBOC-TV, WRDE-LD, FOX21, WBOC Classics, Telemundo Delmarva, MyCOZI Delmarva, 102.5 WBOC-FM, 100.9% Classic Country WAAI-FM, 106.3 Chesapeake Country WCEM-FM, 107.1 The Duck WTDK-FM, CBS Sports Radio 1240 WCEM-AM, Draper Commercial Real Estate, and Loblolly, L.L.C.