The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced a new funding opportunity under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to expand solar photovoltaic (PV) and solar heating and cooling (SHC) system installer training. The closing date for applications is July 30, 2009.

DOE has allocated a total of $27 million for the awards. The funding opportunity is open to all domestic institutions and entities. Funding will be provided to expand training and professional development to instructors who are creating or improving existing training courses for their local PV or SHC installation workforce. Funding will also be provided to administer the National Consortium for Solar Installer Instructor Training, which will regularly convene stakeholders from industry, education, government and other organizations to meet DOE’s objectives to expand instructor capacity in the PV and SHC installer fields.

To read the full funding opportunity announcement (DE-FOA-0000078), visit https://www.fedconnect.net and click on “Search Public Opportunities” on the right-hand side of the page. Under “Search Criteria,” select “Issuing Office,” enter “Golden Field Office,” then click on “Search.” Once the screen comes up, look for the announcement named “Recovery Act: Solar Market Transformation.” The announcement is split into two topics; the solar installer training is covered under Topic 2.

Applications must be submitted through FedConnect to be considered. Instructions for registering are available in the FedConnect Quick Start Guide at: https://www.fedconnect.net/FedConnect/PublicPages/FedConnect_Ready_Set_Go.pd. State and local officials interested in additional information about developing and implementing cost-effective clean energy and environmental strategies that help further environmental and clean energy goals and achieve public health and economic benefits may visit: http://epa.gov/cleanenergy/energy-programs/state-and-local/index.html