Solar & Renewables
Drone Inspection for Solar & Renewables
“Find underperforming panels before lost output costs more than the inspection.”
Overview
How Drone Inspect serves the solar & renewables industry.
Solar arrays degrade over time. Individual cell failures, bypass diode faults, hotspots, soiling, and wiring damage all reduce output silently. On a commercial rooftop system, a 5 percent output drop might go unnoticed for months because inverter monitoring only tracks string-level performance, not individual panel health. On a utility-scale solar farm, undetected faults across hundreds of panels translate to measurable revenue loss every day.
Thermal drone inspection is the industry standard method for identifying panel-level defects. A radiometric thermal camera captures the temperature of every cell across the array in a single flight. Defective cells appear as hotspots, dead strings show as uniform cold panels, and soiling patterns reveal which rows need cleaning first. Every fault is mapped to a specific panel location on a geo-referenced site plan.
For solar owners, EPC contractors, O&M providers, and asset managers, drone thermal inspection closes the gap between what the inverter reports and what is actually happening at panel level. It supports warranty claims against panel manufacturers, validates post-installation commissioning, and provides the evidence base for informed O&M spending decisions.
Problems We Solve
Industry challenges that drone inspection addresses.
Inverter-level monitoring misses individual panel and cell-level faults that reduce output by 3 to 15 percent
Walking a commercial roof with a handheld thermal camera takes days and misses panels in unsafe positions
Panel manufacturer warranty claims require documented evidence of specific defect type and location
EPC contractors need commissioning evidence that all panels are performing within specification at handover
Soiling costs are poorly understood because cleaning schedules are calendar-based rather than condition-based
Relevant Services
Services we deliver for solar & renewables.
FAQ
Common questions from solar & renewables clients.
At what system size does drone thermal inspection become cost-effective?
For commercial rooftop systems, drone thermal inspection is cost-effective from approximately 30 kW (roughly 80 panels). Below that size, a ground-based IR camera inspection is usually sufficient and cheaper. Above 30 kW, the time saving and safety benefit of drone inspection outweigh the cost difference. For solar farms (1 MW and above), drone is the only practical method. We typically quote per kW for commercial rooftop and per MW for solar farm inspections. Annual inspection contracts for multi-site portfolios receive programmatic pricing that makes even smaller systems viable when bundled.
What weather conditions are required for a solar thermal inspection?
Solar thermal inspection requires clear sky with minimum 600 W/m2 irradiance at the array surface. This typically means inspections between 10am and 2pm on a cloud-free day. Low wind is preferred (under 15 km/h) to minimise convective cooling that reduces thermal contrast. We monitor Bureau of Meteorology forecasts and satellite imagery to schedule inspections for optimal conditions, and we reschedule at no cost if conditions deteriorate on the day. In Southeast Queensland, suitable conditions are available on approximately 280 days per year. In Melbourne or Tasmania, seasonal scheduling is more constrained and we plan around weather windows.
Can the inspection report be used for panel warranty claims?
Yes. Our solar inspection reports are formatted to Tier 1 panel manufacturer warranty submission requirements. Each defective panel is identified by its location on the array plan, photographed in both thermal and visual spectrum, and classified by defect type (hotspot, bypass diode failure, PID, cell crack, delamination, junction box fault). Where panel serial numbers are visible from the air, we include them in the report. Manufacturers including LONGi, JinkoSolar, JA Solar, Canadian Solar, Trina, and Q CELLS have accepted our reports as supporting evidence for warranty claims. The inspection cost is often recovered in the first successful warranty replacement.
Other industries we serve
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