Northern Cape Solar Farm Inspection

Although sparsely populated the Northern Cape has one thing in abundance and that is sunlight. This characteristic has not gone unnoticed, and several companies have erected massive solar farms in the province. Solar farms provide South Africa with a reliable source of renewable energy when the country is struggling to meet electricity demands. Solar power is not however a magical and trouble-free power source. Massive resource investments are required to establish and maintain solar power facilities.

The arid and dusty conditions of the Northern Cape also contribute to the gradual degradation of solar panels. Serious chips, cracks, fouling and surface grime can form over time and drastically reduce a solar panel’s efficiency. Damaged panels must be replaced to avoid production loss, but solar farms contain thousands of panels. Manual ground-based inspection techniques are labour intensive and broadly ineffective. An aerial inspection solution using drones and thermal cameras eliminates these shortfalls and delivers high quality results.

Darkwing Aerials deployed our DJI M210 Enterprise drone to the solar farm just north of Kathu in the Northern Cape. Equipped with the Zenmuse XT2 FLIR camera our drone was able to detect even the smallest damage spots on the solar panels. Our drone team was able to inspect each 9.75 hectare subfield in 1 hour. Our team also conducted a full site survey using ground control points and a RTK GPS station. The image and GPS data was then relayed to the thermal specialists in Italy for detailed analysis and reconstruction. The client was provided with a comprehensive damage report without needing to disrupt their daily operations.

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