Officials from the state of Maryland went to prison on Monday. No, it wasn’t the culmination of another political scandal. Instead, Governor Martin O’Malley joined local elected officials at the Maryland Correctional Institution (MCI) in Hagerstown to celebrate the launch of a massive solar farm project that will be erected on the grounds.

Once built, the Maryland Solar project will produce 20 megawatts of power – enough clean energy to power approximately 2,700 Maryland homes, displacing approximately 23,000 metric tons of CO2 annually – the equivalent of taking 4,400 cars off the road each year. Officials also say it will create over 100 construction jobs and eventually three permanent positions.

The solar farm will be built by FirstEnergy Corp., which agreed to creating the solar farm as a condition of its merger with Allegheny Power. The company has agreed to purchase the 20 megawatts of power generated at the site for 20 years, and its subsidiary, FirstSolar, will pay nearly $460,000 in rent to lease the land from the state.

“Innovative partnerships with companies like First Solar and FirstEnergy allow us to continue our progress in advancing solar energy and creating jobs in Maryland,” said Governor O’Malley at the groundbreaking ceremony. ”Over the last few years, we’ve helped put 2,000 men and women to work in solar sector jobs and we estimate that over the next six years, we’ll put another 10,000 Marylanders to work in the industry as we work towards our goal of increasing in-state renewable generation by 20 percent.”

Although the placement may seem unorthodox, it makes sense: prison’s are run by the state and usually surrounded by acres of wide open land. Prisons are very expensive to run, part of the reason many have been outsourced to private owners. Creating the opportunity for a correctional institution to put power back into the grid is a win for both the government and tax payers. There’s also the chance that the facility’s close proximity to the prison could provide an opportunity to train inmates in the art of solar panel installation and repair–something that would actually prepare them for the job market once released.

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