Today, the Austin City Council unanimously approved a $250 million solar plant that would be among the largest in the world.  City officials say it would help them get closer to the city’s goal of using more renewable energy.

The council approved a partnership with Gemini Solar Development Co. to build and operate the facility and sell all its power to Austin at $10 million a year. Under the plan, Austin Energy will purchase all of the electricity produced over a 25-year term by a 30 megawatt solar project to be built on city-owned property located about 20 miles from downtown Austin.

Critics complained that the project is too expensive for the amount of power it produces. They also questioned why the city would partner with a company that will get its solar panels manufactured in China. In repsponse, Austin Energy says there isn’t a Texas company capable of filling the order.

Texas is the latest state to look to solar power, as legislators have announced they want Texas to be in the forefront for alternative energy sources. Plans for new legislation include incentives and rebates that would provide affordable solar panels. The hope is these incentives would spur a boom similar to the one that started with wind power a decade ago.

“We estimated that Texas could put solar panels on the equivalent of 500,000 rooftops in Texas over the next 10 years,” said Luke Metzger of Environment Texas. “That would create about 22,000 jobs and reduce as much pollution as taking 4.3 billion cars off the road for a year.”

Austin Energy, the state capital’s electric utility, recently announced that it wants to build one of the largest solar projects of its kind in the world. The goal is to power as many as 5,000 homes and allow Austin Energy to generate 30 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2020.