According to a new report released today by the Clean Energy States Alliance (CESA), 20 state clean energy funds have invested $1.5 billion in 12,000 completed renewable energy projects.

Those projects now have a combined capacity of 1.7 gigawatts and generate 5.3 million megawatt-hours of electricity each year, according to CESA president Lewis Milford. Most of the 20 states involved require matching private funds from the private sector, which have totaled $2.5 billion during the 10 years (1998-2007) that the data was collected.

Milford says the projects have paid off. Some states informally surveyed have shown that for every dollar in invested in solar, wind and other clean power projects, between $1.5 and $2 in revenue is returned to the state. States have proven to be effective "laboratories of experimentation" in clean power, according to Milford.

CESA has compiled a database of more than 50,000 completed ongoing and completed state-funded projects, which Milford says is the first of its kind. CESA is working to help more states create clean energy funds, and recently assisted in establishing such a program in Alaska.

Since the Obama administration and the new Congress have shown an interest in clean energy and job creation, Milford believes that the federal government needs to also contribute to the successful state programs. CESA would like the federal government to match by a multiplier of two every dollar that states are committing to renewable energy programs.

Any federal stimulus package should make a similar offer to states without clean energy programs today to incent the other 30 states, Milford says. "The most important thing is there has to be dedicated source of money," he says.

States have committed to spend $400 million, so the federal bill would be around $800 million or more, a relatively small amount when compared to the myriad of recent bailouts and other stimulus packages being considered.