Drones and Solar Panels?

Sometimes there are broken solar panels on solar farms, but a new company, Measure, has come up with a revolutionary idea to fix this issue.

To help make solar energy more efficient, drones might be utilized to help identify broken or improperly installed solar panels.

Harjeet Johal, a vice president of the drone company says that sending employees out to manually locate busted panels is incredibly difficult, labor intensive and costly. To find 200 panels in a 200 acre farm would take a couple of weeks where as a drone can spot dead panels in seven hours.

How does the drone spot broken panels?

A drone can be partially or fully defective or wired improperly. The drone company uses both visual and infrared panels to tell which panel is functioning or not. Solar panels convert sun’s rays into electricity and not heat. However, if a panel is broken, it will get very hot compared to the rest of the panels because it is absorbing all of the sunlight, which causes it to stand out to an infrared sensor on a drone.

Why do panels sometimes break?

You don’t hear of solar panels breaking very often, but it can happen. It could depend on the panel manufacture, the life of the plant, the environment, the weather and other factors. But the most important rule regarding solar panels is to not touch them. Always have an experienced employee from Solar Solutions inspect your panels and repair or replace them if need be. Give us a call today at 915-581-0461; we will be sure to meet all of your residential and commercial solar energy needs!