The possibility of using small flying vehicles, or drones, to inspect renewable energy sources (mainly photovoltaic installations and wind farms) opens up a range of new opportunities for RES owners and investors.
Inspections of photovoltaic and wind farms using a drone.
Inspection processes for photovoltaic installations, photovoltaic farms and wind farms have changed significantly over the past few years.
Recently, the use of a drone (UAV) or manned aircraft (aircraft) equipped with a radiometric thermal imaging camera and a video camera has become widespread. It is a high-resolution camera for performing aerial thermographic inspections over a photovoltaic system and technical inspections over windmills that are part of wind farms.
This practice has proven to be fast, safe, cost-effective and very accurate. Ensuring 95-99% accuracy in the detection of anomalies and defects in the photovoltaic system, as well as any technical defects and damage to turbine blades, nacelles or other mechanical components on wind farms, fundamentally affecting the performance of RES and, consequently, investors’ profits!
So what does Lighthief’s drone inspection of their wind farms and photovoltaic farms give Our Contractors?
- Enables on-site resource protection through visual monitoring of photovoltaic installations and wind farms.
- Provides a thermal image to identify faults in a photovoltaic module or the entire photovoltaic system.
- Information about the accumulation of dust and dirt affecting the operation of photovoltaic panels or the need to wash them.
- Monitoring of possible shadows on the photovoltaic array.
- Optimizing inspection reliability and making it less time-consuming.
- Possibility of continuous monitoring during the construction phase of a photovoltaic farm or wind farm and online reporting directly to the Investor!
- Such inspection from a drone can quickly detect threats of equipment theft, ensuring security.
- Drone flyovers improve the operation and maintenance of photovoltaic installations , photovoltaic farms and wind farms.
- We get increased energy efficiency and very high accuracy in finding defects on photovoltaic panels and wind turbine blades.
- We have the ability to connect “online” with the technical department or the investor while performing inspections of wind turbine blades and photovoltaic panels. We gain access to an archive of completed inspection documentation (photos and videos) from the drone and a historical comparison of equipment aging, progressive degradation or prediction of possible failures and defects in the near future.
Check also:
Other services
Authorized representative for sellers of photovoltaic panels
Audits and diagnostics using thermal imaging
Investor audit – photovoltaic farms
Research projects
Reporting to BDO
Service of photovoltaic installations
