Defense Secretary Robert Gates has told Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid that the military won't object to wind farms in an area of eastern Nevada, moving a $1 billion project closer to reality.

Tim Carlson of Nevada Wind, a renewable energy developer, plans to build a 450-megawatt wind farm in the Wilson Creek Range area 40 miles north of Pioche.

He said the Defense Department's agreement is "another step forward" to developing what would be Nevada's first utility-size wind farm.

Hill Air Force Base in Utah has been concerned about wind-power projects in the area because wind turbines can interfere with radar.

But Reid, D-Nev., got assurances from Gates that the department will not object to wind farms in the Wilson Creek area, spokesman Jon Summers said Tuesday.

Carlson, a former head of the Nevada Development Authority and longtime friend of Reid, previously tried to develop a $130 million wind farm on the Nevada Test Site, but Nellis Air Force Base objected and the project died in 2002.

"The Department of Defense plays a very important role in this state," Carlson said. "You've got to work with them. You can't fight them."

Nevada Wind has been monitoring the wind in the Wilson Creek area for four years.

The site is close to a transmission line that Sierra Pacific Resources proposes to build connecting utilities to a planned coal-fired project near Ely and also to a transmission line that LS Power Group wants to build to its proposed coal-fired power project near Ely.

Carlson said he also has been talking with the Southern Nevada Water Authority about connecting the Wilson Creek project to a power line that the water authority will use to supply electricity to pumps for a water pipeline linking northern and southern Nevada.