Solar Panel Inspection Using Drones

Infrared signatures show defective panels.

Solar panel inspection using drones. Value of drones for solar farm inspections. Doing high quality maintenance the trained professional drones inspectors are. Options for plant inspections. Solar panel installations have grown massively up by 81 in 2019 compared to 2018.

First the inspection team needs to confirm the dimensions of the solar farm before they can prepare an effective plan. The same 250 hectares can be covered by drones well within 2 days. Real life applications for solar panel inspection drones many industries are beginning to use drones to dramatically improve their workload. 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.

The use of drones in the solar industry has taken off rapidly in the past few years. For this project a microdrones md4 1000 vertical takeoff and landing drone was chosen with a flight time of up to 88 minutes and payload of 1 2 kilos. Save time with pre selected way point aerial inspections. More installations mean more inspections.

Drones are more efficient cost effective and safer for solar panel installations and inspections. Older solar installations typically require 7 9 acres mw while newer installations only need 5 acres mw. The solar industry has seen a rise in using drones for solar panel inspection for the past few years now. 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.

The process involves detailed planning and a thorough understanding of the area to be inspected. Saving time the system convenience and ease of use help the owners of solar panels to save time in maintenance. There are multiple steps required to conduct a successful inspection. Rapid and easy scans for roof tops and arrays.

Pricing solar farm inspections drone service providers think in terms of acres but solar asset managers pay for services by the megawatt mw. Hot spot identification showing defective cells geotagged image. Further drones and the sophisticated software that powers them are transforming operations and management practices for commercial solar companies. Drones are a powerful tool for solar panel inspections collecting data more than 50x faster than manual methods.

Diagnostic purpose planning of panel placement. Keep the solar farm running at peak efficiency. Inspecting solar farms using drones is not a simple flight task.