According to a report released by New Energy Finance (NEF) last month, renewables brought in more investment than fossil energy technologies in 2008 and represented 40% of global power capacity additions, making the industry a real player on the global stage.

But with the private sector in disarray, investments in clean energy have fallen considerably in 2009. Meanwhile, concerns over climate change continue to rise. In order to keep momentum strong, governments are stepping up and increasingly acting as investors — and the U.S. is the leading the trend.

President Obama’s $67 billion stimulus package for renewable energy and energy efficiency made America one of the world’s biggest backers of clean energy. Billions of dollars have been set aside for a grant program, loan guarantees and R&D. But will the government be nimble enough to deploy the funds efficiently?

If funds are spent too quickly or too slowly, it could further damage the health of the clean energy industry, said investors and business professionals at last week’s Renewable Energy Finance Forum in New York City.

“We’ve had little experience with spending this kind of money in this short amount of time,” said Dan Reicher, Director of Climate Change and Energy Initiatives at Google.org in an interview at the conference. “It’s critical that we strike the right balance between speed of spending and effectiveness of spending.”

As a former private-equity investor and Department of Energy official himself, Reicher knows about the pitfalls of such large government involvement. This is not the first time the U.S. has tried to invest in energy in such a big way. (link)