BERLIN - Blackstone Group LP will be able to move forward with its 1-billion euro ($1.38 billion) project to build and manage a German offshore wind farm after a legal dispute was resolved, a company executive said on Monday.

Jens Assheuer, managing director of the Blackstone private equity subsidiary WindMW, told Reuters a lawsuit against the project that was drawn up in the summer of 2008 had been withdrawn, clearing the way for the project called Meerwind that will produce enough power for half a million homes.

The lawsuit has been withdrawn, Assheuer said of a legal challenge that caused a half-year delay. Based on the current plans, it's possible that all 80 systems will be on the grid by 2013.

According to its design, it will have an installed capacity of 400 megawatts of electricity.

The wind farm will be the latest in a growing number aiming to cash in on European renewable energy subsidies.

It will be built over an area of 40 square kilometres about 80 kilometres north of Germany in the North Sea.

The German government has a goal of reducing emissions of planet-warming greenhouse gases by 40 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels. It currently gets about 16 percent of its electricity from renewables and aims to sharply increase that.

(Reporting by Markus Wacket; writing by Erik Kirschbaum; editing by David Cowell)

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