I've been calling all of the state USDA rural development offices where large wind projects received grants, and can offer the following insights and statistics (Texas still needs to reply on number of applications received, it is less than 5 for sure):

Illinois- 3 applicants, 2 selected
Iowa- 3 applicants, 1 selected
Minnesota-18 applicants, 18 selected
Wisconsin- 1 applicant, 1 selected
Oregon- 1 applicant, 1 selected
Idaho, 2 applicants, 2 selected
Texas, ? applicants, 1 selected

The above is the complete sum of all large wind awards this year, pretty good statistics for number of submissions versus number of awards.

I've called a number of windy states that surprisingly had zero applicants for large wind, including Colorado, Montana, California

The projects selected were very impressive in their organization and to date expenditures, many had already spent a number of years organizing their project and obtaining all required permits, finding financial partners, and collecting wind data. One project under 5MW had already spent over $200,000 to date, according to the State USDA officer.
Projects which request less of a percentage of total costs score higher, and this appears to have been a strategy by many this year, with many projects requesting less than 15% of project costs. The awards go first to those who seem to be doing a wind project anyhow and are looking for a little additional financial assistance, not to those interested to see if they can get a grant so that they can then decide that a wind project would be a good idea. Couple this with the volatility of the Federal tax credit and one can see why many just did not decide to apply.