with Craig Plaatjes, Global Product Manager at OTT HydroMet It's that time of the year - Intersolar is opening its gates and people from all over the world gather in Munich to present and explore the latest developments, trends, and build networks within the solar energy industry. Before packing their bags for Europe's biggest PV event, our host Martin Maly, Sales Manager for Central & Eastern Europe, sat down with Craig Plaatjes, Global Product Manager, to look at some recent market repo...

With Cormac Gilligan, Director Cleantech at S&P Global Commodity Insights Renewable energy sources are on the rise, in recent years mainly thanks to photovoltaics. But various challenges are about to slow down its dynamic growth: Grid challenges, unsolved storage issues, land availability - to only name a few. At this year's Solarplaza Asset Management conference in Prague, Cormac Gilligan confronted the European solar PV industry with a tough truth: There will be a dip in growth within ...

With Matteo Baricchio, Hesan Ziar (both Researchers at TU Delft), and Marc Korevaar, Scientist at OTT HydroMet PV modules generate the largest amount of electricity when directly exposed to the sun. In theory, using two-axis trackers would maximize the yield. For obvious economic reasons, a fixed installation towards the south is the more popular setup. But it is not the power output alone, that counts in the end, as power prices differ a lot throughout the day. They are low at noon, when the...

With Craig Plaatjes, Global Product Manager at OTT HydroMet Intersolar has been huge this year. 18 halls filled with new PV panels, battery systems, inverters, mounting equipment, cleaning robots, software solutions, and more, underscore the industry’s dynamics and hunger for innovation In this episode of OTT CAST, we summarize our learnings and observations from the recent edition. Craig Plaatjes, Global Product Manager, and our host Martin Maly, Sales Manager Eastern Europe, were part of th...

With Sajad Badalkhani, Service & Technical Support Manager at OTT HydroMet Food for geeks! Most measurement instruments are either analog or smart. This applies to our Kipp & Zonen portfolio for solar irradiance monitoring, too. But which one to choose for which application? In this episode of OTT CAST, we welcome Sajad Badalkhani, an experienced technical expert for solar monitoring instruments. We discuss the technical differences between analog and smart sensors and who they are ...

With Maarten van Pel and Renske Cox, Ambassadors for Sustainable Travelling at 4x4electric.com Special Holidays Episode! This Dutch couple has seen quite a big part of the world. Maarten van Pel and Renske Cox always have been passionate travelers. But one day, they decided to stop flying. This decision gave birth to a spectacular idea and their biggest adventure yet: Driving from the Netherlands to Cape Town and back – powered mainly by solar energy. In this episode of OTT CAST, we welcome...

With Dr. Stephan Treuke, Coordinator River Basin Management at Emschergenossenschaft The river Emscher in Western Germany has a turbulent history. Within one century, it turned from a leisurely meandering stream to Europe’s dirtiest river and, most recently, to a restored recreation area. In this episode of OTT CAST, we discuss the history and the challenges of the double transformation that the Emscher went through. Our guest is Dr. Stephan Treuke of the Emschergenossenschaft, the organiza...

With Dawid Brudny, Vice President at APM PRO In a coalescing world, safe and efficient transportation of people and goods becomes increasingly important. Thus, it comes with little surprise that weather monitoring for roads, railways, and air traffic rank among the most innovative applications across meteorology. The company APM PRO is a successful innovator of the Polish and Eastern European road industry. Recently, APM PRO has developed Control Pro Ice, an automated de-icing system that ens...

With Marc Korevaar, Scientist, and Sajad Badalkhani, Technical Support & Services, both OTT HydroMet Dirty PV modules generate less energy than clean ones. This phenomenon called “soiling” sums up to losses of several billion dollars every year. Cleaning increases efficiency, but comes at a cost, too. So, finding the right cleaning schedule and method is key to a higher profitability. In this episode of OTT CAST, we discuss the different sources of soiling and how it is impacting solar e...

With Daryl Ritchison, Director of the North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network (NDAWN) In Episode 20 of OTT Cast, we welcome Daryl Ritchison to share his expertise on mesoscale monitoring. With over 30 years of experience in the field of Meteorology in both forecasting and environmental monitoring, Daryl Ritchison is often consulted for his expertise in the field. As the leader of the pioneering North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network (NDAWN) National Mesonet Program, Daryl provides ...

With Victor Cassella and Sasha Ivans, Meteorologists at OTT HydroMet As a developer and manufacturer of hydrological and meteorological monitoring solutions, at OTT HydroMet we know a thing or two about collecting and evaluating atmospheric data. That’s why Victor Cassella and Sasha Ivans, two of our experienced meteorologists at OTT HydroMet, strongly supported this year’s AMS Annual Meeting’s incorporated statement: “Full, open, and timely access to data is critical to the advancement of at...

With Jay Wilson, Director for Business Development & Sustainability at OTT HydroMet The World Meteorological Organization has launched an ambitious initiative: Within 5 years, every person on this planet must be protected by early warning systems. While the mission sounds clear and it is backed by the United Nations, the path to achieving it is challenging. In this episode, Jay Wilson explains the differences between monitoring networks in various regions of the world and the consequences...

With Laura Goodfellow and Frank Zokoll, Transportation Weather Monitoring Experts Railway traffic is the backbone of both business and individual transport. Keeping the flow safe and on time is a challenge, especially due to the fact that railways are prone to inclement weather. Strong winds, snowfall, floods, heat, freezing switches, and platforms … rail network operators have a lot to consider to ensure safe train traffic. Many of these meteorological phenomena occur in unique areas, thus ...

With Brandon Ankney and Steven Marks, Road Weather Experts Keeping roads and highways safe is critically important. In addition to autumn’s and winter’s perils, the increase of weather fluctuations and extreme weather events throughout the year pose further challenges to road decision-makers. Ideally, a dense network of road weather monitoring stations reliably provides accurate, hyper-local data from the road. Wherever that is not feasible, be it due to local characteristics or tight ...

With Robin Guy, Senior Service Engineer The Scottish Islands are, undoubtedly, a beautiful part of the world. Amid awesome cliffs, green valleys, and wild beaches, the main means of transport are the ferries bringing people and cars from one island to another. To ensure safe ferry traffic, the landing stages are equipped with environmental monitoring instruments for water and weather measurements. Ferry captains rely on accurate information on water level, wind, and further weather parameter...

With Katja Weber, Hydrology Application Development Manager Europe One year after the cataclysmal floods in Western Germany and its bordering states, politicians and scientists of various disciplines are discussing measures to mitigate the impact and harm of heavy rain and flood events. It’s little wonder these events were subject to many conversations and presentations at IFAT 2022, the World's leading trade fair for environmental technologies with a strong focus on the water infrastr...

With Francois Laurent, Sales Manager France, and Marin Dimitrov, Business Development Manager Eastern Europe What a show it was! In May 2022, the solar industry has come together in Munich to celebrate its unbroken growth around the globe. In this episode of OTT CAST, we share the learnings and topics that were discussed at the OTT HydroMet booth. While some regions, such as Eastern Europe are starting to catch up building a solar energy infrastructure, established players are investigating...

The drought that has gripped much of the U.S. West has been a long-running dry stretch for the last 1200 years, a sign of both environmental and human impact. As 2022 shapes up to extend the ‘megadrought,’ researchers are finding the situation is unlikely to improve in the near future. In our debut hydrology podcast, guest speakers Cristina Windsor, Business Development Manager for Groundwater & Irrigation at OTT HydroMet and Dave Colvin, Groundwater Team Leader at LRE Water, share their ...

With Laura Goodfellow and Frank Zokoll, Business Development Managers Road Weather, and Steven Marks, Sales Manager Road Weather Low visibility is a major root cause for traffic accidents and thus a significant safety risk. Meteorological phenomena as fog, snow and, in desert areas, sandstorms are very dynamic and often limited to a small area. Monitoring those events close to the road and adapting traffic flow with Variable Message Signs (VMS) accordingly can save lives. In this episode, thr...

With Ashish Raval, VP Global Tenders, Projects & Key Opinion Leaders at OTT HydroMet Understanding and fighting climate change is on top of the agenda for most countries in the world. Currently, politicians, scientists, and activists are gathering at COP26, the 26th UN Climate Change Conference, and pointing out the growing demand for early warning systems and weather monitoring networks. Ashish Raval has a lot to tell about these systems. Since more than 20 years, Ashish is setting up hy...