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The lights at Saint Peter’s College will soon be powered by windmills.

The electricity purchased for all buildings on campus will be 100 percent renewable wind energy for at least one year starting Jan. 1, school officials said this week.

The college is delivering on a promise it made last year when President Eugene Cornacchia signed the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment, which urged institutions to inventory their carbon emissions and take steps to reduce them. Saint Peter’s was among a dozen New Jersey colleges to sign on.

The school said it would become the second private college in the state to purchase “green” energy as its sole electricity source; the first was Georgian Court University, which announced a100-percent wind power initiative in the summer of 2008.

The carbon emissions saved at Saint Peter’s will be equivalent to planting nearly 2,800 acres of trees, school officials said.

The college has undertaken other environmentally friendly initiatives, installing energy-efficient washers and dryers in dorms, reducing paper communications, eliminating Styrofoam cups and plates, switching to nontoxic cleaning supplies and using two BMW electric cars to use as part of a field trial. In addition, officials are investigating solar panels and plan to upgrade boilers and air-conditioning systems, according to a spokeswoman.

The college’s initiatives are good news for an area that has poor air quality. The federal EPA recently named Hudson County as one of 13 counties in New Jersey whose air fails to meet minimum federal health standards.