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High natural-gas and oil prices, turmoil in the Middle East and increasing worries over power outages have sparked a renewed interest in funding clean energy, say the authors of a report released today.

In 2004, $520 million in venture capital cash flowed into solar, wind, fuel cell and energy technology companies, according to Clean Edge, a San Francisco research firm, and Nth Power, a venture capital outfit with $250 million under management. While the sector’s take is down from $1.3 billion at the height of the dot-com bubble, it represents 3% of the $20 billion that venture capitalists invested in startups last year, double the percentage clean energy garnered five years ago.