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In the current economic climate of corporate thrift, the booming market for technologies to use less energy continues to attract more investor capital.

According a recent survey by research firm The Cleantech Group, energy efficiency firms attracted nearly $1.1 billion in venture capital in 2010, almost double that of 2007.

“I believe the trend will continue,” says Cleantech Group CEO Sheeraz Haji. “The world will continue to open its eyes to the massive opportunities to make buildings and factories more efficient. This will drive deployments in both existing buildings and new construction as the economy recovers.”

He points out that solar energy and electric vehicles may have attracted more capital that year, energy efficiency had the most deals — meaning smaller amounts spread out over a diverse group of technologies.

While energy efficiency sector can encompass as a lot of things, it broadly includes a basket of technologies aimed cutting energy consumption or wringing more energy out of other processes.

Haji says these are the kind of technologies that can attract the attention, and money, of established corporate partners in addition to VCs — almost $40 billion in investments across all of cleantech in 2011, compared to $9 billion last year.

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