Why Do We Need Maintenance of Solar Panels?
With the rapidly growing demand for Renewable Energy, Solar Energy has established its energy applications in domestic and industrial fields. Solar panels play a crucial role in converting solar energy to consumable electric energy. Maintenance is an integral part of the efficient operation and organized working of solar panels. The first aspect of maintenance involves regular inspection of solar panels, to assess the surface to be free of any irregularities. These irregularities can be cell defects, dirt over the surface, failure of connections, or deterioration of solar cells which will compromise their efficiency and performance. It is important to assure the quality of solar panels for power generation and to maintain their long life. Regular inspections guarantee the identification of potential defects that can be found early and repaired.
Solar Panel Inspection
Drone Based
- Less Manpower Required.
- Saves a lot of time.
- Best Practice for Solar Panels placed at a certain height or elevated areas.
- Reduced Costs up to 30-50%
- Safety insured of both personnel and Solar Panels
Traditional
- Require More Manpower.
- Time Consuming Process
- Inefficient for solar panels placed at a certain height or elevated areas.
- High Cost Process
- Risky for both personnel and Solar panel.
Solar Panel Inspection
Shortcomings of Conventional Inspection
- The manual inspection of Solar Panels is a labor-intensive, and time-consuming process. For an industrial solar energy farm, a manual inspection would be an extensive task. For domestic rooftop panels, space limitations would restrict one to gather close-up data. Inspecting panels at different inclinations would intensify chances of reflection which would impede the detection of surface irregularities.
- With the advancement in technologies and ambition to assist multiple emerging industries, drone surveys are finding their applications in solar inspection methods. The best way to inspect solar panels would be from above with an aerial view. Aerial mapping and drone surveying of solar power plants can help one retrieve the required information for the maintenance of solar panels. Drone surveys can incorporate aerial thermal mapping and infrared imaging.
Aerial Thermal Inspection - Next Level Solar Inspection
- Drones surveying is a modern inspection technique that solves the problems of close inspection, time-consuming hours of manual inspection, and provides excellent output data. Different cameras are used for detecting surface irregularity.
- The thermal camera offers detection of temperature difference where conduction of heat from solar radiation can be observed while the visible light (RGB) camera offers detections of technical pitfalls on solar panels.
- Both types of solutions offered by these cameras serve a different purpose that helps run the optimal functioning of solar cells. These cameras mounted on drones can fly over planned paths spanning over a range of farmland, capturing thermal images and geospatial data. The hectares of solar panel farms can be covered with the help of drones within a day.
1
Efficiency
Drones equipped with suitable cameras as per requirements can examine defects on-site and increase the efficiency of data collection for inspecting faults on the surface.
2
Time
We can collect data 50 times faster than manual inspection methods. The installation of solar farms covers an extended amount of land. With the help of drone surveying, this area can be inspected within days.
3
Quality
It offers high-resolution visual inspection that includes aerial images which help create orthomosaics and help improve detection methods.
4
Cost
Implementing solar inspection can reduce the cost of inspection by 30-50 % of normal inspection methods utilized for surveying solar farms
5
Data collection
With geotagged images, we can easily detect the position of identified faults that could lead to potential fatality of the system which could turn into an economic loss and decrease the efficiency of the system
Deliverables & Solutions Offered
Solar inspection with aid of drones is completed in the following steps:
- Flight operation of drones to collect thermal and RGB images.
- Analyzing these images and identifying anomalies.
- Generating reports for potential irregularities.
The deliverables offered by our company include high-resolution, aerial geo-tagged images. Our services provide cutting-edge solutions for large-scale solar farm maintenance including inspection and monitoring of solar panels. We offer prompt and convenient inspection techniques that promise safety and effective surveying conditions.