Construction companies can significantly reduce the time and costs needed to install and manage solar roof panels by incorporating drones on jobs.
Roof Surveillance
Drones with aerial 3D mapping software can reduce the design cycle of solar energy projects by 70 percent and increase job production.
Typically, in order to survey a roof, companies send out surveyors to take manual tape measurements, meaning they have to clamber across roofs for about 2 to 3 hours.
Drones allow surveyors to get all of their measurements without ever having to put their boots on the roof, delivering measurements that are far more accurate than those produced by a tape measure. After the drone is finished with its flight—which can be as short as 15 minutes—surveyors can safely review all measurements from their desks before producing reports and exporting the data into design software.
By removing workers from the roof, companies have the potential to increase their daily field productivity by three times and boost their cost savings by five times, along with improving project safety.
Panel Inspection
Drones with high-resolution thermal imaging are extremely helpful in identifying any issues during roof inspections, making it easier to keep solar panels running at peak efficiency. Whether a panel is malfunctioning, cracked, or dirty, thermal imagery identifies problem areas in real time, permitting inspectors to focus their work and limit on-the-roof time to only those areas of concern.
Instead of searching for “a needle in a haystack,” drones provide a map, cutting inspection times by hours and transforming a commonly dangerous and resource-draining process.
It’s more crucial now than ever that companies consider drone solutions to protect their bottom line.
Mike Winn is the CEO and cofounder of DroneDeploy.
