ABOUT US

John Obermeier

President

Mechanical Engineer, PE

In the late 1980's, Otech founder and president John Obermeier, a visionary leader in the U.S. wind energy industry (and former appointed director of the State of California Governor's Office wind energy program, spearheading the state's groundbreaking efforts towards renewable energy), recognized the unsecured potential that renewable energy held for powering the future. Wind energy technology, in its infancy around the world, was not yet seen as a viable, alternative energy source to fossil fuels, and initial strides in technology development proved rather unreliable, cumbersome and cost-prohibitive.

As an undergraduate and graduate mechanical engineering student at Montana State University, and as a registered professional engineer, building energy consultant, the State of California Governor's Office wind expert and quality assurance engineer for Caltrans, John conducted site and resource assessments, engineering consulting and ongoing performance monitoring for a broad range of high-profile government and corporate customers. When appointed to the state's Governor's Office in 1979, John spearheaded California's efforts under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA) to identify and evaluate potential wind turbine sites, conduct testing, monitor performance, and negotiate contracts with the largest state utilities.

One of the critical aspects in the success of a wind farm is the need for quality wind measurements. Thus, John addressed the importance for advanced calibration technology at a time when the wind industry had no systematic method of measuring and certifying accuracy. With John's inception of the early vehicle test programs over twenty-five years ago, to the pivotal transition to the wind tunnel which now provides global customers with standard-setting industry calibration accuracy and process control, Otech has remained at the leading edge of wind energy technology.

In the continuous pursuit for improvements and knowledge in anemometer calibration standards and test quality, John Obermeier has recently accepted an appointment as chairman for the Anemometer Calibration Standards Committee organized by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA).

Rachael Coquilla

Associate Engineer

Rachael Coquilla joined Otech as a wind tunnel consultant in 2005, bringing with her exceptional, hands-on technical leadership experience from the Martian Surface Wind Tunnel at NASA Ames Research Center. She also contributes knowledge of test quality control and documentation from her experiences as an aircraft technician in the United States Marines and as a precision welder for HTB Inc. and Orbitek Engineering. As a graduate from the University of California, Davis, she offers Otech research knowledge as an investigator for the California Wind Energy Collaborative (CWEC); and with the Environmental and Aeronautical Wind Tunnel Laboratories. Throughout her research career, Rachael has participated in wind tunnel studies of dust suspension, unstable surface layer simulation, boundary layer turbulence measurements, pedestrian level winds over urban areas, gas dispersion from laboratory exhaust stacks, and flow over complex terrain.