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Down but not out In a flurry of deal-making bolstered by government subsidies for renewable energy, venture capitalists invested $5.6 billion in green technology companies worldwide in 2009, according to a preliminary report by the Cleantech Group and Deloitte.

That represents a 33 percent drop from the $8.5 billion invested in 2008, a reflection, the report said, of the global economic downturn. But the overall amount of venture capital fared much worse, retreating to 2003 levels, according to the report, whereas clean technology investments were on track to match 2007 levels.

"In 2009, clean-tech went from a niche category to become the dominant category in venture capital investing," said Dallas Kachan, managing director of the Cleantech Group, a San Francisco market research and consulting firm. "Clean-tech continued to outpace software and biotech."

The report's preliminary survey found 557 deals in the clean technology space in 2009, compared to 567 deals in 2008 and 488 in 2007.

Solar companies secured $1.2 billion in 2009 -- 21 percent of the total and the largest share of venture funding.

The biggest deal of the year also went to a solar company, Silicon Valley's Solyndra, which raised $198 million at the same time it secured a $535 million federal loan guarantee to build a solar module factory.

As most of the major automakers moved to build electric cars, transportation-related start-ups attracted $1.1 billion in venture funding, and battery-maker A123 Systems won the second-largest single investment at $100 million.

In a sign of the increasing strength of the global clean-energy industry, North America's share of worldwide venture capital funding fell to 62 percent in 2009 from 72 percent the previous year.

In the United States, California remained the epicenter of clean technology investing, with $2.1 billion invested, followed by Massachusetts with $356 million and Texas with $170 million.

Minnesota investments were not broken out in the list.