200 Hectares of Solar Plant Inspections

After completing our inspection work on the 163 wind turbines the Darkwing Aerials drone team deployed to the Bokpoort Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plant. Located close to the town of Groblershoop on the Orange River, the Bokpoort CSP plant spans 200 hectares.

Molten salt transported inside glass vacuum tubes are heated to 390°C by the mirror panels. This super-heated fluid is used to make steam that drives the power generating turbine. The vacuum tubes that transport the molten salt fluid run for hundreds of kilometers throughout the plant. Any defects or damage to these tubes is a major hazard for the operation of the CSP plant. 

Every inch of the tubes needs a detailed inspection to detect even the smallest defects. That is where Darkwing Aerials comes in with our M300 drone and the XT2 thermal camera. Damaged tubes overheat and can be detected using a thermal camera. Defects and damage can therefore be clearly seen on the images our pilots collected using the XT2. 

The M300 effortlessly carries the XT2 as a payload and the reduced weight results in longer flight times. We also ensure that our pilots have a sufficient supply of batteries to avoid time lost between flights. As a result the entire 200 hectares of the CSP plant was flown in just two days.

The images were shared with our partners in Spain who used them to create a detailed damage report for the owners of the Bokpoort CSP plant. Furthermore, the entire drone inspection did not halt the plant’s operations for even a second. Normal operations continued while our drone simply flew overhead and collected the image data.

Assisting green energy to become more established in South Africa is a privilege for Darkwing Aerials. Our goal is to be the one stop shop for all your solar and wind power generation inspection needs.