As renewables become a bigger portion of the world's energy mix, it's going to be critical that we put our windmills and solar panels in the right spots. 3Tier, a Seattle-based company that specializes in renewable energy assessment and forecasting, has released the most advanced hi-res map of global wind resources, um, on the planet.

Whereas most wind maps rely only on widely-dispersed observation data, 3Tier's models integrate physical data, including information on atmospheric and geographical interactions. Their map improves on an earlier version, increasing the resolution from 15km to 5km and the simulation time from 1 year to 10 years.

"This map is intended to accelerate the development of wind energy by quantifying the value of the wind resource at any location around the world," said Kenneth Westrick, CEO and founder of 3TIER. "In short, this map and dataset shortens the process needed to make sound decisions about where to invest in wind energy generation."

The company debuted its new digs at the 14th UN Climate Change Conference in Poznan, Poland. 3Tier has other tricks up its sleeve too. Their REmapping the World project is working on a new solar resources map even though their current Western Hemisphere version has 3 times the resolution of the industry standard.

For the first part of 2009, 3Tier is offering a free sneak peak of their wind data through their FirstLook tool. The solar map mentioned above is also available there. Of course, they aren't doing this out of the goodness of their green hearts. The company provides a range of consulting services that tap into these supermaps.

In May I wrote about an interactive map of the world's freshwater regions. I see this as just the latest in a series of examples of how the convergence of technologies is playing a key role in the clean energy revolution. So the next time you're thinking about how sweet it would be to have a windmill in your back yard, check the map first.