Source: 3Tier

The economic winds are blowing favorably for 3TIER Group. The Seattle data services and consulting company recently landed $10 million to continue its work of helping utilities, energy companies and government agencies decide where to build wind, solar and hydroelectric facilities.

That's a hot area right now given that president-elect Barack Obama has made renewable energy a priority for his incoming administration. Founded in 1999 by atmospheric scientist and former Army Ranger Kenneth Westrick, 3TIER has been growing fast as it creates maps which show in detail the solar and wind resources around the globe. The 85-person company also creates forecasts of how much wind or solar energy can be produced at specific locations at certain times, a key piece of information that can help utilities or energy companies determine how much power will be placed on the grid.

"What is the net result of that? Cost savings. It really comes down to dollars and a more efficient grid," said Westrick. "Without forecasting it is kind of a crap shoot."

London investment firm Good Energies led the venture round, which will be used to establish offices in Europe and Asia as it expands its offerings globally. 3Tier raised $2 million last year.

Customers include Seattle City Light, Tacoma Power, AEP, Horizon and BP.

Todd Stone, director of marketing and communicationos at 3TIER, said the company often gets involved in the wind and solar projects in the planning stages so that financial institutions can get an assessment of the financial viability of the project.

"Wind is where a lot of the action is right now. Solar technology is not quite as mature as wind is, but most projections show solar really coming to maturity over the next five years," said Stone. Eventually, the company also plans to develop informational tools for other renewable energies such as geothermal and tidal energy.

3TIER continues to do a lot of work in the Southwest U.S. for solar projects and Texas for wind farms. Internationally, Westrick said the company is seeing interest for wind and solar projects in Chile, India and western Europe.

"We just kind of busted outside of the borders," said Westrick.

But Westrick -- a hydrologist who studied at the University of Washington -- also thinks a new era is coming to the renewable energy industry in the U.S. led by the Obama administration.

"Certainly there is going to be a fresh outlook on one of the biggest challenges the world faces, which is climate change. That is going to be the fundamentally driver behind renewable energies," he said.

3TIER has not seen a direct uptick in business since Obama was elected, but Westrick expects that to come in the next year or so.

More pressing is the global financial crisis and the depressed price of oil, which is having an impact on the ability on some companies to construct new renewable energy facilities.

With oil prices at about $38 per barrel and the global economic crisis cutting off financing for some large scale renewable projects, 3TIER could be hurt if companies decide to pull back on wind or solar projects. But Westrick thinks that oil prices will rise again, stabilizing at $80 to $100 per barrel. But low oil prices are having an effect.

"There is no doubt about it, it has taken a little bit of the wind out of the sails in the short term," he said. "But the long term fundamentals for wind energy and renewable energy are still there: climate change, energy security, decreasing supply, increasing demand. Those things are not going away. A recession can last 6 months or a year or something like that, but these things are going to confront us for the next 80 to 100 years."