E.ON SE announced it has reached a 20-year power sales agreement with an international energy developer for half of the output of its proposed 100-MW West of Pecos solar photovoltaic project in Reeves County, Texas.
The customer of subscription rights to 50 MW of the solar project is SK E&S Co. Ltd., one of South Korea's largest energy companies, Germany-based E.ON said June 12. The West of the Pecos Solar Project is scheduled to go online in 2020 with 350,000 photovoltaic modules on 670 acres. E.ON spokesman Markus Nitschke said the remaining 50 MW of the project's output are not yet under contract.

SK E&S has interests in natural gas field development, LNG production and transportation, regasification and gas distribution as well as gas-fired power generation, combined heat and power and renewable energy. The company has entered into a liquefaction tolling agreement with Freeport LNG Development LP, which is building an LNG export terminal on Quintana Island on the Gulf Coast of Texas.
No information was available on how SK E&S plans to use the energy from E.ON's West of Pecos project. However, the project will interconnect with the electric transmission grid of Texas utility Oncor Electric Delivery Co. LLC, which continues to experience load growth in West Texas due to oil and gas production and midstream processing. Oncor in March asked Texas regulators to approve permits for more than 100 miles of new transmission lines in the West Texas area, including a 345-kV line that will run from its Riverton Switching Station in Reeves County to Odessa, Texas.
High load growth due to increased oil and natural gas exploration in the Permian Basin area in far West Texas and an increase in the number of mostly solar generation projects in the area have contributed to the need for more transmission capacity to address reliability concerns, according to the Public Utility Commission of Texas, which is considering Oncor's application for the West Texas lines.
E.ON also operates wind facilities and lithium-ion battery storage units in West Texas.
