Mercer County Community College, just outside New Jersey's capital city of Trenton, recently announced it is constructing the largest distributed solar installation of any college campus in the United States.

The project is planned to be completed late in the year, consisting of 33,500 American-made solar photovoltaic panels that will span 45 acres on the campus, according to CleanTechnica.

“Such learning opportunities will break new ground in community college education, preparing students for a world that is moving further away from expensive, dirty fossil fuels and closer to clean, renewable sources of energy,” said Guy Generals, vice president for academic affairs.

New Jersey has the nation's second-largest solar market. The local labor market supports more than 76,000 green energy jobs across the state, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Through the new solar project being completed by the community college, a solar array will offset 70 percent of the school's annual electricity demand and prevent 7,500 tons of carbon dioxide from being spread through the environment yearly.

The Essex County Vocational Technical School District in New Jersey is also increasing its green energy use by graduating its first class from the Green Energy Academy, which prepares students for the workforce in green technologies, according to the Independent Press.