Case study · Energy & Utilities

Inspecting 220 MW of solar in one day with autonomous thermal flights

Independent power producerSouthern Alberta, CanadaSample case study

14

Sites inspected per day

220 MW

Capacity covered per day

1,840

Anomalies identified

−68%

Cost vs helicopter baseline

Challenge

The IPP's existing thermal inspection process relied on a manned helicopter once per year, with PDF reports that were difficult to action. They needed quarterly coverage at lower cost and a workflow that fed cleanly into their O&M ticketing system.

Solution

Remote Robotic built an autonomous mission template per site using Mavic 3 Thermal and DJI Pilot 2, paired with Raptor Maps for AI-driven defect classification. We trained two of the customer's O&M technicians and integrated the defect feed into their existing ServiceMax tickets.

Outcome

A two-tech team now covers 14 sites totalling 220 MW in a single 12-hour day, four times per year. Defect-to-ticket time dropped from weeks to hours, and the program identified 1,840 anomalies across the first deployment — 47 of which were graded as immediate-action.