DAYVILLE, Conn. -- A Dayville company unveiled New England's largest solar panel installation on Friday.

United Natural Foods Inc. recently installed the panels at its facility. The panels will help power all applications in the company's vast warehouse.

"It's a 550 kilowatt DC array, which means there are over 3,700 panels up on the roof up there. And, if you stretched them out from end to end, its about three miles worth of solar panels, which is a pretty big system," said Thomas Dziki, who is the company's vice president of sustainable development.

The company is the largest publicly traded natural food distributor in the country, serving more than 17,000 customers with 40,000 products nationwide. The company said its solar project fits their philosophy.

"We want to make sure that we're perceived as a leader in our industry and in the distribution world," Dziki said. "We have these giant roofs and it's a great opportunity to go solar. So, the more we can put on this planet, the better off we're all going to be."

When the sun is shining, the DC power comes off roof and leads into an inverter that turns the power into AC to help offset huge electrical demands of the operation.

"It's going to take us six to seven years to pay off the investment we have in the system, but after that, we're going to have another 20 years of clean energy. So, it's really a win for us and it's a win for the state of Connecticut as well," Dziki said.

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