The City of Pflugerville, Texas — a bedroom community outside Austin, perhaps best known to date as a filming location for the TV show, Friday Night Lights — is restyling itself as the Research Triangle Park of the Southwest.

A 167-acre triangular-shaped piece of land off the Texas 130 toll road is set to become the city’s economic hub, thanks to the vision of the Pflugerville Community Development Corporation, which purchased the property in 2008.

Officials are envisioning a mixed-use industrial park, complete with proper incentives to lure green technology companies to Pflugerville. The development corporation, a taxpayer-funded organization created by voters in 2003, is mandated to bring business to the city.

The plan was conceived after RRE Austin Solar was formed in 2010 as a Texas Limited Liability Company for the purpose of developing up to 60 MW of energy in Travis County, Pflugerville. The objective of the company is not only to provide clean renewable energy through solar PV systems, but also to become a "change agent" — an ambassador for clean energy throughout the cities and counties in which it develops solar farm projects. RRE Austin Solar plans to employ local labor, expertise, and vendors whenever possible, after it opens in 2014.

With one renewable energy company on the way, in 2010 Pflugerville commissioned a study that found that a local business incubator could attract clean energy entrepreneurs nationwide,  interested in using the city's planned solar farm. During a Pflugerville Community Development Corporation board meeting, Strategic Development Services President Charles Stein said the Austin area's young, well-educated workforce and strong entrepreneurial climate make it a good place to start an incubator.

"In one fell swoop this will be the catalyst that will make a major change to Pflugerville," Stein said.

“Renewable energy has been our focus. That's our target," said Floyd Akers, executive director of the development corporation. "To be quite frank with you, renewable energy jobs pay really well. These manufacturing and assembly jobs will help our families grow. With good jobs come stable families.”

The incubator would house about 22 companies and provide entrepreneurs — who would pay rent and a fee to participate — with office space and mentors to help develop their companies over several years.

The program would be the first of its kind in Pflugerville, but not in Central Texas. Austin is home to one of the nation's largest and most successful incubators — Austin Technology Incubator. Since its founding in 1989, ATI has worked with more than 200 companies, helping them to raise over $750 million in investor capital

The new Pflugerville Renewable Energy Park, which will be close to Northeast Metropolitan Park and the Austin Executive Airport, will include offices, retail shops, restaurants, a hotel, offices, an electric vehicle charging station, and townhouses or apartments.

The park's first tenant will be Complete Energy Systems Inc., which is moving from Boca Raton, Florida, within a few weeks, but will not become a commercial tenant at the park until next spring. The company, which has eight employees, is planning to move to a temporary location in Pflugerville before it sets up shop at a 120,000-square-foot facility in the new industrial park. Complete Energy System has two divisions: Atlantic Solar, which will make solar panels, and Green World Systems, which creates "mobile renewable power stations" that are powered by wind turbines and solar panels.

Last month, the Pflugerville City Council approved an incentives deal for Complete Energy Systems. It will receive a 50 percent property tax rebate from the city for five years, up to $375,000, and the company agreed to hire at least 100 full-time employees by 2013 and at least 100 more by 2014 in a separate incentive agreement with the Pflugerville Community Development Corp. The economic development corporation has agreed to pay the company $3,000 per job created, up to $750,000; as well as $75,000 in moving expenses.  Akers said Complete Energy Systems also is receiving $1,400 per employee from the state's Skills Development Fund.

The renewable energy park will offer companies another incentive: an option to use treated wastewater for manufacturing processes and landscaping, offered at a reduced rate as low as 25 cents per 1,000 gallons. Austin Water Utility, by comparison, offers reclaimed water at $1.30 per 1,000 gallons.

Construction on the industrial park is scheduled to begin in two weeks. Last month, council members approved a $633,780 contract for Kiva Inc, a construction firm based in Buda, Texas, to construct wastewater infrastructure for the property.

"The city and the (development corporation) have just been phenomenal," said Harvey Katz, CEO of Complete Energy Systems, remarking that Florida "has been cold in welcoming green technology."

Katz said he and company officials initially explored moving elsewhere in Florida, as well as Louisiana, Maryland and Kansas, but found the workforce and incentives in Texas, as well as the location, to be more attractive. "We said that [it] was a golden opportunity for us to go into the energy park," Katz said.