Solar farms are getting bigger every year, and with them, so are the challenges of design, construction and maintenance. Drones are flying to the rescue to lower costs, improve safety and optimise output. Today, drones are being deployed across the full solar life cycle, from site surveying and construction monitoring to post-commissioning operations and maintenance (O&M).
In this episode, we explore how drones can deliver the most value for the industry. Joining us to share their insights are Suneil Sastri, vice-president of product management at Zeitview; Joshua Baum, commercial lead at Percepto; and Rehaan Shiledar, senior power industry analyst at GlobalData.
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We discuss drone use cases across the value chain, beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) regulations, drone-in-a-box (DiaB) and AI potential, and where the industry is heading.
How drones are used across the value chain
Drones now support solar from the earliest site design through commissioning checks, all the way to regular maintenance inspections. The key benefits across the board are cost optimisation and reduced safety risks. In a fraction of the time typically needed, drones can replace labour-intensive and dangerous manual tasks, lowering operational expenses and minimising worker exposure to on-site hazards.
The competitive edge they offer, Shiledar argues, is optimising how organisations perform repetitive tasks at scale: “Drones enable companies to remotely monitor multiple sites simultaneously without scaling workforce costs. Fast access to actionable data also optimises resource allocation and enhances decision-making.”
Where can drones most and least help?
While drones can add value in every phase of the solar value chain, Shiledar says their value is most established in the O&M stage. Sastri echoes that use cases naturally land in this phase, given that the bulk of global solar capacity is already in operation.
However, Baum argues that he increasingly sees more deployment in the early stages of a project. Construction progress changes so quickly that frequent aerial capture can be especially valuable, with clients often requesting flights “on a daily basis or a weekly basis” as opposed to monthly or yearly inspections post-commissioning. “The frequency [of flights required] is much higher, the value is much higher,” he says.
The experts also flag important limitations. Baum notes that drones can only capture what they can see from the air, meaning “anything that lives underneath those panels… that is where today’s drone technology is limited”. Sastri adds that drones “also can’t test equipment”, which is why he frames them as “a force multiplier for your field workforce”, rather than a replacement, freeing technicians to focus on repairs and verification.
Drone-in-a-box and navigating BVLOS operations
While drone operations once required an on-site human pilot, solar farms are increasingly installing fully automated, unmanned DiaB set-ups. However, BVLOS regulations stand in the way, with regulatory fragmentation and the practical challenges of obtaining waivers for compliance serving as the major gating factors.
“DiaB technology and costs have reached a point where mass deployment makes a lot of sense,” says Sastri, “but legislative and regulatory challenges are slowing down the rollout.”
Shiledar calls BVLOS “the most demanding challenge faced by commercial drone applications worldwide”, since regulators must balance promoting innovation with ensuring safety and security. Yet, once the potential is unlocked, “the benefits of drone BVLOS operations will drive the commercial drone market in the coming years”.
Baum emphasises that autonomous drone operations are a key lever in making the return on investment (ROI) case work at scale, enabling “one operator… to operate 30 drones at the same time without being on site”. DiaB especially shines when the developer or operator needs flights on a frequent basis.
Despite these benefits, Baum tempers expectations about the complete takeover of DiaB. He says that ROI and regulatory constraints mean that humans won’t be “removed completely in the near future”, even if that remains the long-term vision. Sastri agrees, noting that “crewed aircraft… still provides probably the least complex and cheapest option for thermographic inspections for distributed generation sites in many scenarios”.
AI and the software-first evolution
As drone hardware becomes more commoditised, software – and what organisations can do with the drone-collected data – is becoming the distinguishing factor for competitiveness. Solar developers and operators find the “real value… from the full workflow”, Baum says.
Shiledar confirms: “The growing volume of data gathered by drones demands increasingly sophisticated analysis tools.”
Both Zeitview and Percepto describe AI as central to this shift in focus. Baum describes AI as “super critical” in drone deployment, used for object-counting and anomaly classification by type and severity. Sastri looks further ahead, predicting that generative AI will increasingly automate answers to recurring issues and emergent risks to each solar site’s ROI, risk profile and labour constraints.
Drones in solar: the next frontier
As drone fleets and analytics mature, new questions will undoubtedly emerge. Increased integration with other technologies, including connectivity with the base via unencrypted communication channels and new AI software, comes with increased security risk. “Thus, technological innovation must be paired with updated cybersecurity measures to ensure proper operations,” says Shiledar.
Looking forward, both Baum and Sastri converge on a vision where drones are no longer treated as stand-alone add-ons but as part of a connected optimisation ecosystem. Sastri describes “a closed-loop system” in which Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition anomalies, storm alerts or construction milestones can automatically trigger the right drone mission. Baum also highlights that the destination isn’t simply more drones and more flights but providing a “full solution” that meshes aerial data with inputs from ground robots and rovers to deliver a unified operational picture.
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