The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission on Oct. 2 authorized Minnesota Power’s agreement with Cypress Creek Renewables LLC to procure energy and capacity from the 10-megawatt Blanchard Solar LLC generation facility for a 25-year term. The state’s solar energy standard requires 1.5 percent of utilities’ retail sales to come from solar resources by 2020. Minnesota Power’s 2015 integrated resource plan estimated a need for about 33 megawatts of solar power to meet the standard. The commission approved the plan in July 2016 setting interim targets and also found that procurement of up to 100 megawatts of solar by 2022 would be economic for the company’s system. The Blanchard project, expected to come online by July 2020, would add about 18,000 megawatt-hours of renewable power and 5 megawatts of capacity accredited by the Midwest power market annually. Minnesota Power is a division of ALLETE Inc.