With all apologies to Stephen Crane: A cold has passed reluctantly from the earth, and the dawn has revealed a new day in Pflugerville.

Last month, city leaders signed an economic development agreement with RRE Austin Solar that will allow for a solar energy production facility capable of producing at least 60 megawatts of electricity – enough, city leaders say, to power every house in town.

RRE Austin Solar has agreed to have the project up and running no later than Aug.1, 2014, and to produce at least 20 megawatts of electric energy at all times thereafter.

As James Rincon wrote in a July 1 article in the Pflag, the company has plans to maintain a 550-acre solar farm on the west side of Manda-Carlson Road at Felder Lane. The facility, just outside the Pflugerville city limits but within the city’s property rights, will be exempt from annexation until 2040 but RRE Austin Solar will pay an annual fee equal to 0.05 cents per $100 in valuation of the property, starting in 2020.

According to the agreement, plans include the placement of “solar panels and/or small wind turbines” on city and Pflugerville ISD facilities and properties as requested by the city. The company will finance the installation of no more than $750,000 in solar panels and wind turbines on those facilities and properties.

There is much to consider still on this project, but the city has taken a significant step forward in giving solar power a chance to gain root in Pflugerville. According to the Solar Energy Industries Association, solar energy is the cleanest, most abundant renewable energy source available. It doesn’t bring with it the concerns of nuclear energy and solar energy, with consideration to advances in vehicle power, can help drive the nation away from its dependence on fossil fuels.

The SEIA notes the greatest challenge facing the solar market is scaling up production and distribution to drive costs down to the point they are on par with costs of fossil fuel sources. But steps in doing so appear to have been made in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, otherwise known as the federal stimulus package. Federal grants in that act are helping solar projects get off the ground, including more than $2 billion in new and upgraded solar equipment factories, according to SEIA.

The solar industry is also seeing an increase nationwide in employment, although the increase is slight. From 2008 to 2009, employment in the solar industry jumped by 10,000, according to SEIA.

Locally, Dell Inc. late last year completed work on a new 516-panel solar structure at its Round Rock headquarters. According to Dell, the array is designed to generate 130,000 kilowatt hours of solar power annually, and helps to avoid around 145,000 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions per year.

Dell built the structure in an employee parking lot, providing shade for about 50 parking spaces and including two charging stations for plug-in electric vehicles.

Other projects, on smaller scales, may also be on the way, thanks to state legislation. According to SEIA, 16 states including Texas since last year have enacted “property-assessed clean energy” financing provisions. They allow homeowners and businesses to finance solar energy systems through government-backed bonds via assessments on their property taxes.

SEIA has set an industry-wide goal of installing 10 gigawatts of solar capacity annually by 2015, and has set its sights on making solar energy the cheapest source of retail electricity in the United States by that year.

“The solar energy industry – invented and commercialized in the U.S. – is the solution for our country’s addition to fossil fuels,” Rhone Resch, president and CEO of SEIA, said in a June 21 written statement. “It’s time we get this country moving in the right direction.”

It appears the city of Pflugerville has already taken steps in that same direction.