Thermal Drone

Aerial Thermography

Thermal drones can detect individual faulty panels in solar power plants. There is also no need to exclude parts of the site from the inspection to save time. A drone can inspect an entire solar power plant in a few hours.

How Does Thermal Imaging Work?

Heat, commonly known as infrared radiation (IR), is simply atoms vibrating. Objects emit a heat depending on how fast their atoms are moving, the faster the particles move, the hotter the object becomes. Thermography is the study of this heat and the application of thermal imaging.

Humans can feel heat but cannot see infrared radiation. Because this radiation has an electromagnetic wavelength that the human eye cannot detect. Thermal cameras convert infrared heat into something we can see.

Drone thermal cameras can detect most objects, but there are a few exceptions, such as highly polished, shiny and reflective items that do not absorb much heat because they have low emission. These are difficult to detect with thermal cameras. High emissivity objects such as wood, solar panels and even people are easy to scan.

Advantages of Using Thermal Drones in Solar Power Plants

Thermal drones are a versatile and efficient tool for obtaining data about the site during solar power plant inspections.
The indisputable advantage of drones is that they can reach places that are difficult, expensive, dangerous or even inaccessible for manned inspections. They can be used indoors, underground, on land or at sea. With the help of drones, solar power plants are safely inspected. Drones can collect data on solar panels 50 times faster than manual methods.

In general, PV panel inspection by drone offers a more cost-effective and efficient inspection solution by allowing more frequent thermographic inspection. This means that any problems can be identified and corrected much faster.

Drones with thermal imaging cameras can complete a full inspection of a solar power plant in hours compared to manual methods that take months, increasing the quantity and quality of data and reducing costs.

Should Photos or Videos be Taken for PV Panel Inspection?

It is recommended to take infrared and high-resolution colour (RGB) photographs when drone inspecting solar power plants.

Do Drone Inspections of Solar Power Plants Provide Accurate Data?

There is a world standard that is scientifically proven and accepted as correct all over the world. Aerial thermography with unmanned aerial vehicles can detect 100% of faults and fault type with 99% accuracy. Compared to manual inspections, drones have a much shorter inspection time and provide more accurate data. The results of thermal inspection by drone are also reported at world standards with MapperX software.

How Long Does Aerial Thermography Take?

The duration of thermographic inspection of solar power plants depends on the size of the site. Inspecting PV systems with Thermal Drone is the fastest and most efficient way.
For example, a 30 MW (60 hectares – 105,000 panels) site is inspected with 99.99% accuracy at world standards in a short period of 4-5 hours and reported with MapperX.

How to Save Money Commercially with Thermal Drone Inspections of PV Panels?

• Drone inspection is much faster and cost-effective than traditional PV inspection methods.
• Inspection time is 99% faster
• If the faults detected in the panels remain uncorrected, the reports show the annual financial loss.

Does Air Thermography Extend the Life of Pv Panels?

It is necessary to have thermal drone inspection and maintenance to reduce deterioration and failure in the solar power plant. You should have these systems checked regularly to maximise the long-term performance of the PV power plant and achieve energy production targets. Since the service life of PV panels, which are regularly maintained and checked, is extended, the speed of return on investment increases.

Is MapperX software needed to analyse the data obtained from drone inspection of solar power plants?

Yes.
Although drones reduce the inspection time of solar power plants by more than 99%, they generate a lot of information that needs to be reviewed and converted into usable formats.
If you are new to using drones for inspections of PV panels, you may think that it is easier and cheaper to review this information manually. However, it takes a lot of time to review thousands of photos or hours of video taken by a drone. The results of thermal inspection in solar power plants are reported with MapperX. MapperX software provides world-class reporting of data obtained from inspections in a simple and understandable format at an affordable cost.

Artificial intelligence software MapperX has the ability to examine the image obtained by the thermal drone of hundreds of megawatts of solar power plants in a much shorter time than the inspection performed by human inspection. It is much cheaper for MapperX software to report the results of thermal inspection rather than paying many people to examine the data analysis and learn the errors. Visit the website to learn more about “Common Misconceptions about Solar Power Plants“