Duke Energy signs 2nd deal to get electricity from pig poop

The country's largest electric company announced a deal Tuesday to collect methane gas from animal waste and convert it into fuel for the H.F. Lee plant near Goldsboro and the Sutton plant near Wilmington.

The Charlotte-based utility said its 15-year deal with Wilmington-based Optima KV should capture enough methane to power about 880 homes a year. Duke announced a similar, larger deal in March.

"This project has environmental benefits and is cost-effective for our customers," David Fountain, Duke’s North Carolina president, said in a statement.

The project involves building a unit at participating farms near Kenansville that will free the methane gas, which is then cleaned to required standards and injected into the underground natural gas pipeline network.

A North Carolina law requires electric utilities in the country's second-largest pork producing state to begin generating some of their power from swine and poultry waste.