President Barack Obama urged Monday for more investment in new energy technologies such as solar, wind or hydrothermal, saying that is the way the United States can win the economic competition of the future.

He also said his administration has to make sure to invest money every year to improve the technology for renewable energy, because although the costs to produce solar or wind energy have decreased, they still more expensive than making energy with fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas, he said.

The country that figures out how to make cheaper energy that's also clean, that country is going to win the economic competition of the future. And I want that to be the United States of America, President Obama said at a town hall meeting in Elkhart, Indiana.

President Obama has called on Congress to speed up and approve the $800 billion stimulus package to restore the economy. Tens of billions of the package will be used for the energy sector.

Obama said renewable energy companies should be provided with tax credits and loan guarantees. He also pushed for a renewable energy standard in which U.S. utilities may need to get 15 or 20 percent of their energy from renewable sources so that companies producing renewable energy have a solid market appealing to investors and lead to the growth of the sector.

The U.S. Senate and Natural Resources Committee was scheduled for a hearing Tuesday to receive testimony on draft for a Renewable Electricity Standard proposal. Under the bill, the amount of energy coming from renewable sources will increase to 20 percent by the year 2039, according to Reuters.

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