Today’s energy security issues and volatile prices are primary threats to a clean energy transition and much desired Net Zero goals. Through the power of satellite data, Wegaw offers the underlying technology to a sustainable energy future.
Currently, we are delivering near real-time environmental variable insights for the hydropower industry by monitoring snow depth, snow water equivalent (SWE), melting snow, soil water level and lake volume for instance. Hydro plant managers need to know how and when winter snow accumulation, as well as springtime snowmelt, will affect streamflow and water capacity levels that are required for the rest of the year, so that they can maintain their deliverability agreement. Energy traders need to know if for instance, snowpack is going to be below average expectations so that they can manage risk better by hedging against price increases or procuring other energy sources.
With a unique combination of satellite imagery, geospatial data and machine learning our renewable energy optimization SaaS helps energy utilities, traders and operators better understand future renewable energy production – and what’s more – there are no scalability limitations and no expectation for in-situ hardware investments.
Our climate tech team has been working away behind the scenes, to provide you with the opportunity to explore different changes in the magnitude and timing of snowmelt and how these variables can significantly alter downstream inflow to hydropower dams.
So, without further ado… we are very pleased to present our interactive Snow Water Equivalent and Snow Height visualizations, methodologies and datasets, that you may “play” with in order to discover the relationship between snow characteristics and downstream water flow at different times throughout the year.
For instance, below we compare our snow height datasets for the hydropower industry against Ultracam data from the Swiss Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research (SLF):
Our climate tech products are used to monitor key environmental variables, helping energy stakeholders, government bodies and national agencies around the world to reduce renewable energy imbalances, increase trading efficiencies, gain energy security and ultimately detach from fossil fuel dependencies.
Below are snapshots from some of our interactive map apps. First is our Snow water equivalent (SWE) map which shows the depth of water that would cover the ground if the snow cover was in a liquid state. Next is our ‘Melting’ snow map that highlights snow with a high water content which indicates that it is in the process of melting:
Due to our expertise and pertinent datasets, we can help to level-up price optimization by up to 5% and increase production optimization by up to 10% – resulting in crucial CO2 and fossil fuel reductions, whilst increasing additional renewable energy output.
Want more detail?
You can see more technical data comparisons and methodologies, in two new reports – produced by our incomparable R&D leaders, Thomas James and Niamh French – that evaluate our datasets against those from the Swiss Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research (SLF), as well as from independent data sources from the Nordics and North America regions.
Discover how our snow height product compares with historical datasets provided by the world’s leading interdisciplinary research and service centre on snow:
Delve into our snow water equivalent solution at length as we evaluate it against three different data values from Canada, Norway and the United States of America:
What’s next?
This is a very proud moment for Wegaw, and of course we would relish the opportunity to showcase these new industry resources with our peers and a variety of industry stakeholders at numerous innovative events, start-up competitions and during meaningful discussions whilst sharing our experiences from the optimisation projects that we’re collaborating on with more than 30 hydro power plants across the world.
We firmly believe that our mission is very apt given the volatility of the daily energy market as well as the energy security issues being experienced across the world, which are collectively impacting the clean energy transition and Sustainable Development Goal targets. In addition to enhancing our solutions through different industry avenues and teaming up with like-minded innovators, we will share our values and vision in person where we can.
For instance, we are curating a series of online industry events for energy stakeholders and geospatial professionals to participate in an exchange of industry insights and best practice with peer led discussions, data finding reviews and technical comparisons, as well as innovative technology application highlights and lively audience Q&A
In the meantime, you can find out more about one of our most prominent multi-user projects, by checking out our Swiss industry and science consortium that is on track to optimize hydropower production throughout the country. We are very pleased that Wegaw is amongst the top 25 Clean Energy Generation start-ups of 2022 as curated by Start Up Energy Transition…
As well as being inherently invested in what we do, naturally, our unwavering passion for a clean and green future is driven by of the countless invaluable and inspirational achievements that continue to be realized by individuals, communities and groups of all backgrounds and ages globally, such as EU Green Week, the Stockholm+50 UN Conference, World Environment Day, STHLM+50 Climate Hub Live (hosted by We Don’t Have Time) and UN World Oceans Day.
Having garnered a high profile set of investors, Wegaw is a proud member of the first Climate Accelerator Program by Katapult.vc and Banco Sabadell’s BStartup Green program. We look forward to releasing details about our Seed A funding stage in due course, but if you’d like to speak with our leadership team in the meantime, please send an email to info@wegaw.com.
