Featured in Powering Through – 05-2025

Eyes in the sky

Like solar panels, drones have become cheaper and more sophisticated – fast. ‘Drone-in-a-box’ operations offer PV project owners the option of having a resident drone on site, heralding a new era of automated utility-scale solar operations and maintenance (O&M).

By

Jonathan Gifford

02 May 2025

‘Drone in a box’ systems can enable monitoring of utility-scale solar, from site surveying through construction and maintenance. | Photo: Above Surveying

The supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system issues an alarm and within minutes an automated drone is airborne above a solar project. Flying meters above the modules, it crosses the site in seconds, arriving at the row where the fault was detected.Using thermographic vision, the drone scans tens of modules in seconds, seeking anomalies. …

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