
Solar Panel Inspection Drone
Benefits of Using Drone for Solar Panel Inspection
Drone solar inspections are significantly faster than traditional methods. Drones can inspect 1 megawatt (MW) of solar panels in about 10 minutes, whereas I-V curve tracing can take 2 to 5 hours for the same.
I-V curve tracing is a manual electric testing system that is currently the standard practice for PV systems. Due to higher cost and labor limitations, I-V tracing is typically used at the combiner and string level and more testing is required for module-level inspection. Whereas, utilizing aerial thermography, drones can cover an entire PV system while collecting data for every module.
A case study by Measure found that drone inspections increased inspection efficiency by 97% in comparison to manual inspection. This operational efficiency resulted in an average cost savings of $1254/MW.
For larger solar farms, manual inspection is even more time-consuming, and expensive and might also lead to interruptions in power generation. According to Nanonets, for a solar plant with 200,000 PV modules spread over 250 hectares, manual inspection with a team of 3 people will take more than a month. Whereas, drone inspection can cover the same 250 hectares in 2 days.
Drones can also help automate the manual and highly cumbersome task of large solar farm monitoring. Drones can be programmed with flight path planning algorithms and equipped with both RGB (Red, Green, Blue) and thermal cameras. Such a drone-based system can autonomously inspect the entire solar farm and further adding an image processing algorithm will also enable it to process RGB and thermal images for automatic fault detection.
Drone Solar Panel Inspection – Service Providers
- Precision Hawk
- The Drone Life
- Drone Deploy
- Intertek
- Percepto
- Equinox’s Drones
- The Chandler Companies
- Viper Drones
Best Drones for Solar Panel Inspection
- Mavic 2 Enterprise Advanced
- DJI Matrice 210 V2
- DJI Matrice 300 RTK
- Parrot ANAFI Thermal
- Autel Robotics EVO II Pro RTK
Ground inspection does not provide the necessary imagery and entire testing of the solar panels the same way that an aerial thermal imagine does. A UAV ...
Before the installation occurs, drones can be used to survey the entire area. A drone survey will indicate which areas are going to be in the sunlight most ...
Drone flights equip workers to survey roofs before panel installation, allowing planners to take structure, depth and other factors into consideration via ...
For aerial solar inspections and any drone inspections in the US, the drone pilot will need to obtain their Part-107 ‘Remote Pilot Certificate’ license, read ...
Aerial images provide a broader perspective of solar farms and allow maintenance teams to receive valuable information in real-time, like the status of each ...
One of the studies demonstrated that the drone inspections are 97% faster than manual inspections for solar panels. Cost savings due to efficiency gains ...
Aerial thermography inspection is the most efficient way for solar PV operations and maintenance (O&M) teams to identify and repair malfunctioning solar ...
The use of drones for solar field inspection has been rapidly increasing over the last few years. Traditional assessments using field engineers and hand-held ...
Drones have become a vital tool for solar panel inspections, collecting data more than 50x faster than manual methods and improving safety by avoiding ...
Drones are capable of capturing visual and thermal imaging at a very high resolution, with the ability to see photovoltaic modules and other components of the ...
Thermal camera systems offer an essential diagnostic tool for the hot spot problem. Since hot spots emit heat, they show up on thermal images (thermograms) as ...
During traditional thermographic inspections of rooftop solar fields, there is rarely enough space to crawl under the panels to get straight-on, close-up ...
Operational in just 55 seconds, Parrot’s ANAFI USA drone uses an integrated FLIR Boson Thermal sensor and a powerful 32x zoom, to detect centimetric hot spots ...
In manual solar field inspections, time and resources don’t allow for every unit to be checked, which often leaves anomalies overlooked. Drones can perform ...
Drones are inexpensive, easy to deploy, and simple to operate. Using them for PV system inspections makes processes more accurate and straightforward than ever ...
The use of UAVs to inspect large PV plants has grown significantly over the years, thanks to their superiority in field coverage, reliable imaging, quick ...
Drones are revolutionizing how solar farms are inspected, operated, and maintained. They’re making solar site inspections faster, safer, and delivering more ...
Using drones in the solar industry both opens up new possibilities and replaces existing work. Without drones, inspections are typically completed manually. ...
Benefits of Using Drone for Solar Panel Inspection Drone solar inspections are significantly faster than traditional methods. Drones can inspect 1 megawatt ...