Solar Panel Inspection Using Drones

In order to inspect a large surface area like this solar field a drone needs to be highly reliable and be able to fly relatively long periods of time without stopping or running out of battery.

Solar panel inspection using drones.

There are multiple steps required to conduct a successful inspection. The use of drones in the solar industry has taken off rapidly in the past few years. The solar industry has seen a rise in using drones for solar panel inspection for the past few years now. Rapid and easy scans for roof tops and arrays.

Real life applications for solar panel inspection drones many industries are beginning to use drones to dramatically improve their workload. More installations mean more inspections. Further drones and the sophisticated software that powers them are transforming operations and management practices for commercial solar companies. Hot spot identification showing defective cells geotagged image.

Keep the solar farm running at peak efficiency. Doing high quality maintenance the trained professional drones inspectors are. The process involves detailed planning and a thorough understanding of the area to be inspected. Save time with pre selected way point aerial inspections.

Diagnostic purpose planning of panel placement. Older solar installations typically require 7 9 acres mw while newer installations only need 5 acres mw. Using infrared drone technology to inspect solar panels and wind turbines an east coast industrial plant had for months experienced a significant dropoff in energy production from its. Options for plant inspections.

A drone mounted with a thermal camera can fly over pre planned routes covering one section of the solar farm at a time and capturing thermal images along with geospatial metadata. Saving time the system convenience and ease of use help the owners of solar panels to save time in maintenance. Infrared signatures show defective panels. Pricing solar farm inspections drone service providers think in terms of acres but solar asset managers pay for services by the megawatt mw.

Drones are bringing airborne analytics to utility scale solar operations like pv equipment inspections resulting in strong time and cost savings. The same 250 hectares can be covered by drones well within 2 days. In addition using drone technology to inspect and do maintenance to solar panels is a great way of. Inspecting solar farms using drones is not a simple flight task.

First the inspection team needs to confirm the dimensions of the solar farm before they can prepare an effective plan. Solar panel installations have grown massively up by 81 in 2019 compared to 2018. Value of drones for solar farm inspections.