Solar Inspection

Why Inspect a Solar Farm with a UAV?

A drone’s capacity to cover vast distances and provide high-resolution aerial images has allowed many companies to optimize their efficiency when completing dangerous or time-consuming tasks. Drones have provided solar farm managers with accurate data via new technological developments, such as thermal sensors, ensuring that routine operations are conducted more efficiently.

Companies across the Energy Industry, are combining cutting edge technology with drones to increase the efficiency of their energy plant operations, with drones playing a critical role in their quest to provide reliable and affordable energy to their customers.

Traditional solar field assessments consist of inspecting each panel with handheld thermal imagers to check for defective cells or cables. During this process, personnel have to manually keep track of the faulty panels’ locations to perform maintenance afterward. Given the dimensions of most solar farms, this method of inspecting is inefficient and results in a heavier, and sometimes hazardous, workload to maintenance and operations teams.

Drones are continuously being used on solar farms to improve inspection operations, especially areas that are highly irradiated and create a host of issues for on-site teams. The use of drones allows solar farm teams to cut inspection time by 70%, a significant reduction when compared to traditional methods.