Last year, a coalition of environmental and tribal groups, including the Center for Biological Diversity and Western Watersheds Project, filed a lawsuit against the project over the project’s potential environmental and cultural impacts.
They claimed that the Bureau of Land Management had not adequately considered the wind farm’s impact on a colony of rare bats living near the farm, or on sacred American Indian sites nearby.
But Pattern has announced that the lawsuit has been now been settled privately and dismissed by the Federal District Court in Nevada. A spokesman for the company said it could not disclose the terms of the settlement.
Pattern chief executive Mike Garland said: "We are starting to see that all renewable energy projects, no matter how well-planned, are being questioned. We are pleased to be able to reach agreement with the concerned parties. The settlement should give more confidence to these concerned parties and the community that the project is well designed."
Work on the Spring Valley is due to be completed in July this year and will be Nevada’s first wind farm of any significant size.
Pattern has entered into a 20-year power purchase agreement with NV Energy for the sale of energy produced by the project.
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