I am anticipating 2012 to be an exciting year for both 3TIER and the broader renewable energy industry. Despite the ups and downs of 2011, our belief in renewable energy's promising future is unwavering. Even in this time of financial and political crisis, there lies an opportunity to learn from the past and significantly improve upon the status quo. This is a challenge for the entire industry, and will be our focus at 3TIER for 2012 and beyond.

When I look back on 2011, I see it as a transitional year. A slow global economic recovery resulted in some growth, but came on the back of financial uncertainty and tighter investment capital. With this pattern and high profile events such as the Solyndra bankruptcy, mitigating the risks of investment in renewable energy is more important than ever. As put so succinctly in a recent Wall Street Journal article, "competitive advantage is becoming less about technological leaps and more about choosing the right locations for projects and managing them efficiently."

Helping mitigate the risk of renewable energy development and production is our core service and area of expertise. That is why we have continued to enhance our premium assessment products, designed specifically for financial institutions to help them recognize projects with the greatest chance of profitability. Our successes in this area include reducing the risk of over $4.1 billion in public and private funding for solar projects and developing a working standard for the industry in facilitating sound investment decisions.

We have also invested heavily in our production and international teams, bringing on new faces and expertise. We hired additional staff at our India office to keep up with the ever-increasing demand for our services there, re-established our in-market European office, and developed partnerships in China that have helped us gain traction in an exciting and complex market. Meanwhile, we continue to rank among the fastest-growing companies in the US. In support of this and future growth, we've realigned how our software, science, and product teams work together.

In 2012, we anticipate a greater need for renewable energy risk management in the growing markets of India, China, and Latin America. In India, we are already working closely with the Indian Regulatory Authority as well as wind owners and operators to shape and fulfill forecasting regulations, which will help manage the country's large and growing wind capacity. In China, the budding solar market is drawing a great deal of attention and enthusiasm. Many projects with huge production potential are in the pipeline and developers are looking for ways to best maximize and manage power generation and ROI. On the wind development side, new projects in China are increasingly scrutinized and there is a more sophisticated selection process for approval. In Brazil, 3TIER is involved in shaping the certification process for solar resource assessment. The popular Chilean market is also drawing a lot of international investment and our risk analysis services will be crucial to investors evaluating renewable portfolios.

3TIER has always been a leader in innovation. Through new products, services, and partnerships we offer our clients a more complete picture of project performance and risk. Providing power forecasts for 43 GW of installed capacity and assessing over 800 wind and solar projects on six continents gives us unique insight on weather-related risk and resource variability. In these times of uncertainty, our insights are critical to the future of renewable energy, and we're looking forward to sharing our perspectives at numerous events this year, such as the Bloomberg NEF Summit, Infocast's Wind Finance and Investment Summit, and EWEA 2012, just to name a few.

Happy New Year to all of you and here's to a successful 2012!

Craig Husa
3TIER CEO