Panasonic to jump-start Pflugerville solar farm

Panasonic officials said the company would not confirm or deny Coleman's announcement at this time.

The planned $200 million solar farm, located on 720 acres in Pflugerville's extraterritorial jurisdiction, will use more than 400,000 solar panels to generate 60 megawatts of solar energy. It is expected to create 350 construction jobs over the next three years.

RRE had previously held a ceremonial ground breaking for the solar farm in December 2010, but there has been little visible progress in the meantime. Panasonic's involvement would seem to reignite a project that has formed the backbone of Pflugerville's green energy strategy.

Since the ground breaking of RRE's solar farm—which Coleman called "the deal that started everything"—the city has announced a number of deals in recent years with companies in the green energy sector as a way to brand Pflugerville and attract high-paying employers.

"This project is a marriage of doing the right thing for the environment and reducing Central Texas' carbon footprint while at the same time developing a good business plan for the City of Pflugerville because clean energy is one of the fastest-growing sectors in the American economy," Coleman said.

Coleman made the announcement at the CleanTX Forum held at Austin City Hall, a forum dedicated to clean energy in the Central Texas corridor.

"Solar is the up-and-coming direction for green energy, and we are excited to be on the ground floor with this," he said. "We want to become the green center of Central Texas and of Texas."