Solar & Renewables
Drones for Solar and Renewable Energy
Renewable sites are large, remote, and full of assets that fail quietly. IDI automated drone systems run scheduled thermal inspections from off-grid docks, finding faults before they cost you generation.
Solar farms and renewable energy sites cover huge areas, often in remote locations with no convenient power or staffing. Faults such as hotspots, failed panels, and connection issues reduce output quietly, and manual inspection of thousands of modules is slow, costly, and infrequent.
IDI automates inspection at the asset. Off-grid capable docks host a thermal-equipped aircraft that flies scheduled routes across the site, captures the data, and surfaces faults through IDI Fly. You find underperforming assets early, plan maintenance precisely, and protect generation.
The renewable energy inspection challenge
Large, remote sites need frequent, accurate inspection, but doing it manually is slow, costly, and easy to defer.
- Scale: solar farms hold thousands of modules and wind sites span large, dispersed areas.
- Silent losses: hotspots, failed strings, and soiling cut output without an obvious alarm.
- Remote and off-grid: many sites have little power or permanent staff to support inspection.
- Infrequent manual checks: hand inspection is slow and costly, so faults run for longer than they should.
- Access and safety: inspecting turbines and large arrays exposes people to work-at-height risk.
How IDI supports renewable energy
Automated, thermal-capable inspection that runs itself at the site, even where there is no grid power.
Off-grid, on-site docking
Off-grid capable docks host a ready aircraft at remote arrays and wind sites with no mains power required.
Thermal fault detection
Thermal payloads reveal hotspots, failed panels, and connection faults that are invisible to a standard visual check.
Scheduled BVLOS coverage
Beyond Visual Line of Sight flights cover large sites from a single point, on a regular cadence, with the safety case to match.
AI defect detection
Onboard AI edge processing helps flag anomalies in the thermal and visual data, so issues surface faster.
Repeatable inspection routes
Aircraft fly identical routes each time, producing comparable data to track degradation across the asset over time.
Protect generation
Catching underperformance early means faster, better-targeted maintenance and less lost output.
The system behind it
Built and integrated by IDI to work together out of the box.
IDI ADS1000
Rugged, off-grid docking purpose-suited to remote solar and wind sites.
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IDI Fly
Schedule inspection routes, review thermal data, and track asset health over time.
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IDI Aquila UAS
UK-built long-endurance UAS for wide-area inspection across large renewable sites.
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IDI PDS
Portable deployment system for ad-hoc inspection and commissioning surveys.
Learn moreFrequently asked questions
Drones carry thermal and visual cameras over the array to detect hotspots, failed panels, soiling, and connection faults. IDI automates this with off-grid docks and scheduled flights, delivering the data through IDI Fly.
Yes. The IDI ADS1000 is off-grid capable, so a ready aircraft can be based at a remote solar farm or wind site without any grid connection.
Thermal imaging reveals hotspots, failed or bypassed panels, faulty strings, and connection issues that reduce output but are not visible to the eye. AI edge processing helps flag these anomalies in the data.
Yes. Aircraft can capture imagery of turbine structures and blades from the air, keeping inspectors off rope access and reducing work-at-height risk across renewable assets.
Because the aircraft is based on site and flies a pre-planned route, inspections can run on whatever schedule the site needs, far more frequently than periodic manual inspection allows.
Find faults before they cost you generation.
Talk to IDI about automated, off-grid thermal inspection for your renewable energy assets.