COHASSET — Minnesota regulators gave Minnesota Power the green light to build a solar project that could power up to 19,500 homes.

The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission on Thursday unanimously approved a site permit for the Duluth-based utility’s $163.5 million, 85-megawatt solar project adjacent to its Boswell Energy Center in Cohasset. The project will also include a new substation and a nearly 3-mile, 230-kilovolt transmission line linking it to the existing substation at Boswell.

Solar panels are expected to cover about 500 acres of land, approximately half of which is owned by Minnesota Power, with the other half leased from other property owners.

Contributed / Minnesota Power

“We’re excited to get the permits and get the authorization to get to work on that when the snow melts,” said Julie Pierce, vice president of strategy and planning at Minnesota Power.

Carrie Ryan, enterprise project manager, said work on the project will begin this spring, with the array coming online in fall 2027.

The company’s larger, 800-acre, 119-megawatt project in Royalton, which is also permitted, has a similar construction timeline.

When complete, the two solar projects will be the company’s largest, surpassing its 15-megawatt Sylvan solar project near Brainerd, which came online in 2023.

The Boswell and Royalton projects represent more than two-thirds of the
300 megawatts of solar Minnesota Power announced in 2022
as part of an agreement with clean energy organizations weighing in on the company’s required integrated resource plan, which outlines the next 15 years of expected energy sources and demands.

The nearly 100 remaining megawatts will come through “an exciting distributed solar energy standard that we are working on meeting,” Pierce said. The specifics are still being worked out, company officials said.

Between 50% and 60% of the company’s energy now comes from renewable sources. State law requires utilities produce all electricity with carbon-free sources by 2040.

Boswell is home to Minnesota Power’s last two coal-fired power plants, which are scheduled to retire by 2030 and 2035, and are significant sources of tax revenue to Cohasset and Itasca County. This solar project or other proposals, like
refueling Boswell with natural gas,
could preserve some of that tax base.

It also makes use of what’s already there.

“One of the really great things about this project is it takes advantage of all the existing infrastructure that’s already at the Boswell Energy Center, and utilizes that to bring this energy to the transmission system,” Ryan said.