Work started on wind farm near Ely, but lawsuit looms

Pattern Energy Group of San Francisco said Wednesday that it has started construction on its Spring Valley wind farm east of Ely.

Pattern has been grading the site and building roads, said Mike Garland, the company's chief executive officer. It will be six to nine months before Pattern begins putting up the project's 66 turbines.

Upon completion, Spring Valley will generate 150 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 45,000 homes. It will create 225 construction jobs and 13 full-time permanent positions once it opens. Pattern estimates that it will generate $20 million in tax revenue over 20 years. NV Energy has signed a 20-year contract to buy power from the site.

There's just one potential hitch: Three Native American tribes and the Western Watersheds Project and Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit in January looking to stop the project. The groups claim the Bureau of Land Management, which owns the 8,565-acre site, fast-tracked the project without preparing an environmental impact statement. They argue Spring Valley could harm
1 million Brazilian free-tailed bats during their fall migration.

In March, the U.S. District Court for Nevada denied the parties' request for an injunction to stop construction. The case is now with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Garland declined to comment on the lawsuit. He did note Spring Valley will have radar technology that shuts down turbines when birds enter the area. He said the company has also donated money to preserve nearby sage-grouse habitat.

Advocates for the West, the Idaho conservation group that filed the lawsuit on behalf of the plaintiffs, didn't return a call seeking comment before press time.

If construction continues, Spring Valley should go live in a year.

Contact reporter Jennifer Robison at
jrobison@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4512.