Case Study: Akuo Energy speeds up solar farm inspections with Pix4Dmapper

Smart inspection of a solar farm using drones

Akuo Energy, an independent renewable-energy producer in France, needed a faster and more reliable way to inspect its photovoltaic (PV) fields for damage and hotspots. Previously, annual inspections were done manually with handheld infrared cameras, requiring two employees and about four days of work to walk the solar farm and capture images of each panel. Pix4D and its Pix4Dmapper photogrammetry software were used to support a drone-based inspection approach.

Pix4D enabled Air-Marine to fly a Microdrones MD4-1000 drone equipped with a Sony Alpha 7 camera over the 66-hectare site and process 370 images with ground control points to create a georeferenced orthomosaic and panel vector drawings. The new workflow cut inspection time on site by 50% in the first year and reduced post-processing time for IR images by 30%, helping Akuo Energy increase inspection efficiency and lower costs.

Akuo Energy