In May of last year the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) released a report titled “20% Wind Energy by 2030“. The report showed that the U.S. has access to enough wind energy resources to greatly exceed even the 20% goal. But, it also pointed out that major hurdles would have to be overcome before the exploitation of wind energy on that kind of scale could proceed.

Now the DOE has issued a wind power funding opportunity announcement for $6 million over two years to address those issues detailed in the 2008 report.

The issues that the funding will be directed to include: wind turbine research, development and testing, distributed wind technologies, market acceptance, environmental research, analyzing and assessing transmission line and developing the wind energy workforce.

Applications for wind power funding must be submitted by March 3, 2009. Eligibility is unrestricted and the award ceiling is $500,000.