Zeitview’s Releases Aerial Inspection Report of U.S. Solar Power Plants
by DRONELIFE Staff Author Walker Robinson
Zeitview has released the outcomes of their 2023 North American Solar Scan. Using aerial imaging they’ve determined that 51% of operational systems are in excellent or good condition.
Based in Santa Monica, CA, Zeitview is a pacesetter in aerial inspection technology and committed to advancing the transition to renewable energy. They mix aerial imagery with AI-enabled software to discover actionable insights for utility-scale solar owners and operators. Zeitview intends to expand its operations beyond North America, with a goal of inspecting 200 gigawatts (GW) of operational solar installations globally.
In the US, solar photovoltaic has change into the fastest growing energy generation technology, and complementary technologies reminiscent of UAV and aerial imaging offer modern solutions to fulfill the accelerating industry’s needs. There are greater than 100 GW of large-scale solar in operation today and a further 150 GW planned for installation in the subsequent five years. Zeitview’s aerial inspection technology offers beneficial insights into efficiency losses, deterioration, and defects in latest and existing solar installations.
Using a mixture of manned and unmanned aircrafts, Zeitview gathers each photographic and thermal imaging. This data is put through AI-enabled software trained to detect specific defects in solar photovoltaic equipment and the outcomes are reviewed by solar industry experts. Ultimately, this permits solar fleet owners and operators to make informed decisions for his or her installations, saving money and allowing them to make use of their labor resources in essentially the most efficient way possible.
Zeitview’s North American Solar Scan[1] includes data from 90% of the most important solar installations in North America, assigning installations with a rating from AAA to DDD based on the positioning’s condition. Of the 95 megawatts recorded, 51% of the solar plants received a BBB rating or higher, reflecting that they were in good or excellent operational condition. Only 2% of the installations were determined to be truly distressed, and the remaining 47% were determined to require various degrees of service to achieve a “good” or “excellent” rating.
“The insights offered by the North American Solar Scan provide the oversight crucial to maintaining high-performing assets to enable a successful clean energy transition. This data can tell owners and O&M firms specifically where to troubleshoot while saving them money on inspection costs. More importantly, it helps focus the limited labor resources on the facility plants that really need attention,” said Mark Culpepper, general manager of world solar solutions at Zeitview.
Continued optimization and incentivization of renewable energy have led to a forty five% of electricity-generation additions in 2023 coming from the solar industry[2]. The utilization of drones for aerial inspection offers an answer to the constraints facing the inspection and maintenance of solar arrays. Zeitview will further showcase their findings, asset rating system, and imaging technology on the RE+ convention September 11-14 in Las Vegas, Nevada[3].
Read more: