By James Kanter
New York Times
December 5, 2008

Could the biggest barrier to global renewable energy adoption really be a lack of information?

That is the line taken by a company called 3TIER that produces data-rich maps to help plan the locations for wind and solar farms.

At a time when money is tight, there certainly is ring of authenticity about 3TIER’s claim that developers, financiers and governments need help making better decisions about their investments before, during and after their projects are built.

Using the company’s products “shortens the process needed to make sound decisions about where to invest in wind energy generation,” according to Kenneth Westrick, the chief executive of 3TIER, which is based in Seattle.

A year ago, the company released a world wind map that provided detailed information about suitable sites that simulate the interaction between the atmosphere and the earth’s surface.

On Thursday, at climate change talks in Poznan, Poland, 3TIER said it was offering an updated map with much higher resolution and richer data. 3TIER said it used a 10-year simulation across the world’s landmass at a resolution of 5 kilometers to create its latest product.

“Myriad processes responsible for wind – from jet level dynamics to surface level processes and everything in between – are accounted for in these models,” 3TIER said in a statement. “They are able to create realistic wind fields throughout the world, with the results especially enlightening in regions where observations are not available.”

Even so, high-technology mapping for the renewable energy industry still has some frontiers left to conquer.

One thing that doesn’t yet appear to be part of the company’s model is whether citizens living near prospective wind sites are going to be happy about the appearance of towering windmills on their hilltops or coastlines.

World Nimby map, anyone?