Location: Minnesota, United States
Size: 5.9 MWdc
Service: Turnkey Service and Report
Inspection Level: Raptor Standard
Reason for Inspection: Annual Inspection
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]]>Anomalies Identified
Power Loss
Annual Financial Loss
16 Anomalies
2,853 Modules Affected
391.4 kW
6.71% Affected
$17,450 Lost
if Anomalies Unresolved
SITE INTRODUCTION
The owner’s 6 MW solar PV system was recently inspected as part of an annual preventative maintenance inspection using Raptor Maps turnkey services. A pilot was deployed within one week of the inspection request. The Raptor Standard level inspection took three hours of on-site piloting and provided the O&M team with sub-modular anomaly details through thermal and visual spectrum imagery. Raptor Standard level inspections can show anomalies from the inverter level down to the cell level. The inspection uncovered 490 system anomalies, categorized into 16 anomaly types, and amounting to 2,853 affected modules.
The owner’s 6 MW solar PV system was recently inspected as part of an annual preventative maintenance inspection using Raptor Maps turnkey services. A pilot was deployed within one week of the inspection request. The Raptor Standard level inspection took three hours of on-site piloting and provided the O&M team with sub-modular anomaly details through thermal and visual spectrum imagery. Raptor Standard level inspections can show anomalies from the inverter level down to the cell level. The inspection uncovered 490 system anomalies, categorized into 16 anomaly types, and amounting to 2,853 affected modules.
Some anomalies to note were instances of tree line shading, which affected over 2,200 modules, and combiner issues, affecting 324 modules. In addition, there were 3 strings and 68 individual diode faults discovered.
The owner’s O&M subcontractor used the deliverables to identify the most impactful and easily remediated anomalies within the site. The deliverables enabled them to set up a plan to resolve all non-shading related anomalies within two weeks of the site inspection. The team started with the malfunctioning combiners to resume the 1.78% of lost production. The O&M team was already aware of the shading issues impacting the site, however, the shading impact had never been quantified. The O&M team used this new data to create a plan to resolve the onsite issues causing the shading and performance loss.
This findings table has been filtered to show high priority issues only.
The case study above was published by Raptor Maps, Inc and its purpose is to aggregate findings to provide a benchmark for PV system status to improve and strengthen the PV industry. This report draws from the Raptor Maps data repository and includes an overview of aerial thermography findings and the relative impact on PV systems.
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]]>The post Drones to the rescue: Safety and aerial rescue with drones appeared first on Simply Drones.
]]>When we talk about location, surveillance, rescue, or security tasks, we talk about areas of action where you must act in the fastest and safest way to guarantee the lives of people who are at risk. Many times, when an emergency occurs, response time is vital, an example of this is what happened in the 2015 Nepal earthquake, where thanks to the rapid action of drones, reconnaissance, search, and coordination flights were possible to rescue several people.
Drones have proven their effectiveness in emergencies. Their use in risky environments is expanding due to their advantages over traditional methods such as helicopter flights. Drones have greater maneuverability, move easily over uneven terrain, reach places that are difficult to access, capture high-definition images and significantly reduce response times.
Drones can also be used for crowd control, somewhere where the accumulation of people is critical, to monitor public buildings, for anti-terrorism controls, and can even be used for Judicial Police investigations.
Wonderful, isn’t it? Today at Simply Drones, we want to invite you to learn a little more about how drones could be applied in different areas and search and rescue tasks.
Drone Search and rescue. Image copyright: © Jason J. Hatfield
1. Search for missing people
In the field of rescue, drones have already been applied with success, and they are increasingly used in the search for missing people, this is because they can fly day and night and thermal cameras can allow trapped people to be found alive. One or more drones can search for missing people in open or hard-to-reach places such as mountainous or snowy areas. The small size of these UAVs makes it possible to have them always available in mountain stations, considerably reducing the search time.
Compared to the cost of a traditional helicopter, the low cost of these drones make them ideal for this task (a traditional helicopter is at least 30 to 60 times more expensive, and involves risk of human lives, high fuel consumption, etc.)
2. Transport emergency supplies
The transport of emergency material with drones (such as first-aid kits, medical kits, food, floats, or tools) constitute one of the primary tasks in rescue missions. The ability of drones to reach difficult places make them the perfect tool for transporting material in emergencies and on any terrain. For example, in a risky situation on a beach, drones could fly towards the victim, drastically reducing the response time of a first intervention. Immediately, the drone could release a life jacket that would automatically inflate when in contact within contact with water, thus saving the person in danger.
Sea rescue operation with a drone. Image copyright: 1001 Crash
3. Reconnaissance missions and risk situations
Having an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) can be useful in reconnaissance missions, to plan police tactics, observe installations from the air or carry out escort tasks to a police operation.
The tasks of border surveillance and restricted access areas are particularly interesting, with the possibility of establishing a constant patrol in the area to be protected and carrying out automatic detection of risk situations, triggering a manual supervision alarm. In the same way, drones could also help to act early in situations where there is little knowledge of the terrain.
In espionage or information gathering tasks, drone cameras can be a great ally to know the risk in an unknown situation.
4. In fires or natural disasters
Drones allow emergency teams to explore, observe and control dangerous fires, they also allow assess the fire to determine its path and speed of travel, and any structures or areas with a risk in the path of travel quickly and effectively. This enables firefighting supervisors to send their teams exactly where they are needed.
In a fire situation, dual-purpose drone’s cameras are fully exploited, capturing thermal images to see through dense smoke, allowing the identification of certain hot spots and the source of the fire. The combination of all these technologies provides firefighters with valuable information to help them make the right decisions as quickly as possible.
Drone firefighting. Image copyright: Asia Pacific Fire
Drones not only allow us to be faster and more efficient in aerial thermography tasks, but they are also very useful when intervening in risky situations. Technology advances and every day we see how drones become indisputable allies in many areas of work. The new uses that are being given to drones are also a response to the needs that the world is having, as human beings we must think of technology as an ally to our daily tasks. Getting the best out of drones and helping others is a fundamental part of being responsible and contributing to the responsible use of drones, in Simply Drones, helping others is a fundamental part of our work, for this reason, we invite you to know our services, where we also want to help you in your solar construction, design and maintenance projects.
Silvia Monroy
Author
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]]>The post Women you didn’t know who have revolutionized the drone industry appeared first on Simply Drones.
]]>1. Marilyn Monroe
In 1942, young Norma Jean Dougherty married Jim Dougherty, a factory worker in Van Nuys, California. The following year, her husband enlisted in the Merchant Marine and, in 1944, he was sent to the Pacific Theater of World War II. Then, at just 18 years old, Norma Jean moved with her parents to Van Nuys and began working at the Radioplane Munitions Factory.
These photos of Monroe with her brown curls were taken by David Conover, (a U.S. photographer from the Army) when her name was still Norma and have been circulating the internet for years.
Although her main job at the factory was to spray aircraft with fire retardants, here she is seen assembling the OQ-2 radio plane (sometimes called the RP-5A, TDD-l, or “Dennymite” by its designer Reginald Denny), which was the world’s first mass-produced unmanned aerial vehicle.
This drone was a small radio-controlled aircraft powered by a two-cylinder, two-stroke piston engine. It featured two counter-rotating propellers and was launched by “a catapult.” If he survived target practice, he was retrieved by a parachute.
Later versions sold to the Army included landing gear, although the Navy did not include it. These Radioplane OQ-2s measured almost 2.74 meters long with a wingspan of just over 3.65 meters. Each one weighed 47 kilos.
It is not uncommon for Monroe to have worked making flying machines for war back then, as during WWII many men went to fight, and then factories and industries were taken over by women. There is even a famous poster that says “We Can Do It! / We can!” and the image has a woman in a factory uniform showing her strength.
2. Hedy Lamarr
As we are telling you, at that time it was common for women to start taking male jobs like Marilyn did, who worked assembling these drones, but long before that, Hedy Lamarr would be born, a woman who would have a lot to do with the development of technology. of drones.
Hedy Lamarr was an Austrian-American actress and one of the most iconic movie stars of her time, during World War II she dedicated herself to doing something very important: she invented a frequency hopping communications system for the Allies, which established the foundations of the GPS, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi technology we use today.
When Hedy patented her technology and handed the patent over to the United States Navy, they sadly didn’t take it seriously. They said the invention was too cumbersome and not a useful military technology. What they meant was that it was unlikely that an actress and musical artist would have invented a technology that could serve them. It was state-of-the-art technology and some claim it could have shortened the war by a year or more and was the size of a watch face. Well, what does this have to do with drones?
We found evidence that Hedy’s patent was assigned to military contractors in the 1950s and that the technology was used in military drones and sonobuoys. She created the first system that allowed the development of a surveillance drone and contributed to science and technology’s great advances in the drone industry and evolution. These advances were used in Military satellites and from there they migrated to the GPS, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi systems that we use today.
These two stories show us many things in common, two women, actresses, beautiful and intelligent who always had ties with drone technology, assembly, and development of these. Unfortunately, we also see that they were not recognized for their knowledge, because at that time they were only recognized for their work amid entertainment and cinema.
3. Mónica Abarca
Currently, this has changed, many women continue to revolutionize and create an impact in the drone and technology industry, one of them Mónica Abarca who leads qAIRa, a startup that offers sensors and automated drones to mining companies and municipal governments for the survey of parameters environmental. At just 26 years old, the mechatronic engineer develops drones and sensors for air quality monitoring –measuring gases such as carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and dust–, which in recent months has expanded the range of possibilities to include survey services for other environmental parameters.
Little by little the recognition and participation of women in the drone development industry is being obtained, Mónica, through an interview given to the source Infobae, tells us about some of the limitations of women in the area:
"In my career, we were 20% women. I think there is still a certain fear, even in the family sphere, that women study engineering, particularly the hardest ones, such as mechanics or mechatronics. It is a chip that must go changing. From school, girls should be taught that they can choose the career they want. This is achieved by giving visibility to women who have been successful and who are achieving interesting things".
At Simply Drones, we are proud to tell and extol the different stories in which women are protagonists in the development of the solar industry and drones. Keep learning more stories through our blog, by the way. Do you already know the story of Tesla and Drones? It will surely remind you of Hedy Lamarr’s, find it on our blog.
SOURCES, AUTHORS AND REFERENCES:
– Esteva, R. 2013. Marilyn Monroe armed drones for war.
– INFOBAE. 2019. The young woman who develops drones to improve air quality.
– López, E. 2021. What does Marilyn Monroe and aviation have to do with it?
– Stilwell, B. 2020. Marilyn Monroe’s first job was building drones for the military.
Silvia Monroy
Author
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]]>The post Will it be possible to control the weather using drones? appeared first on Simply Drones.
]]>Science and technology are the closest thing to magic. With it, we can do things that we would never have thought of, but how far can we go? Through the years, we have witnessed how the human being is expanding the use of the technology that he creates reaching areas never imagined, it is common for something that was invented with a specific purpose to end up adapting to new needs, changing and evolving.
And it is that with the speed of technological advances that we have been experiencing in the last century, it would not be a surprise, in the short term, to run into the “futuristic events” that for years we have witnessed in science fiction movies and series being a reality.
Can you imagine that the government can control the climate of your country through Drones? Would you like to receive your favorite restaurant’s food in minutes thanks to a drone? Or go to work flying in a modern Drone Bus and avoid all the traffic? Well, these are projects that are a reality or will soon be (by the way, you can find out about the Drone Bus on our blog).
Without a doubt, controlling time is something that only the gods could do... until recently.
In the United Arab Emirates, in the desert of the Arabian Peninsula, there is not exactly enough water. What they do have is money and with-it technologies to get water if necessary. So much so that it is getting it to rain, even though the temperatures exceed 140° F. How? The answer lies in the artificial seeding of clouds, a process that allows the clouds to discharge as much water as possible, even if the environmental conditions do not exist. For this, the human being himself oversees making the conditions happen, doing tricks, of course.
How does technology cause it to rain?
Scientists at the University of Reading in England helped develop a series of drones that can fly into existing clouds and alter the electrical charge of water droplets so that they clump together, amazing, isn’t it?
If it works in a small region, this means it could help replenish troubled water supplies around big cities like Dubai, and usher in a new era of human control over the climate. According to local media, the United Arab Emirates has achieved a total of 219 operations to create artificial rain in 2021 alone. Despite the heat waves and the arid climate of the country, they are making it rain on its cities and areas of interest.
Is there controversy about the use of drones to control the weather?
This technique of seeding clouds and then releasing all the water within them is generating controversy since many governments believe that naturally occurring climatic events are being altered and this could have “hidden interests”. In addition, there are experts who believe that this can get out of hand and cause flooding, although it has been shown that in the hands of experts this can be controlled.
This mechanism is not the first to be used to try to generate artificial rain, since there are products that are mostly used by people involved in agricultural workers who use a type of product capable of creating cloud seeding in another way, although it is not 100 % safe for humans.
For now, it is believed that this technique applied by Dubai to create rain to lower the hot summer temperatures is perfect if it is controlled and guarantees the safety of all citizens of the country.
What you opinion on this topic? Would you like this climate control system to be implemented around the world? Let us know in a comment on this post!
Drones are changing the world, and at Simply Drones, we bet on this it is for this reason that we invite you to discover our portfolio of services. Perhaps at Simply Drones for now we will not make it rain eventually, but currently, we do have the best service in Aerial Thermography, Conceptual Panel Design, and Ground Monitoring. What are you waiting to discover our service?
Silvia Monroy
Author
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]]>The post Drone bus: Imagine going to work flying appeared first on Simply Drones.
]]>If we talk about transportation methods, without a doubt, the Drone Bus model presented by Kelekona is one of the most innovative concepts in mobility, technology, and versatility in the drone and transportation industry.
The company is committed to a design powered by eight electric motors, capable of transporting 40 passengers to just over 500 km (among them you could be you) and a pilot. Impressive, right?
We also all know that moving around big cities, between states or countries can be exhausting, it is for this reason that Kelekona aims to make air transport an everyday act, easy and affordable for everyone. In the long term, the company’s intention is that tickets on the drone bus cost the same as a train ticket for an equivalent distance.
How long would it take to reach my destination with the Drone bus?
The intention is that with the Drone bus we can reach all the destinations we want faster, to give us an idea of the speed of the proposed prototype, the company gives as an example some cities that could be reached with just one hour of flight. Los Angeles and San Francisco (560 km in a straight line), New York to Washington (330 km), and London and Paris (350 km) would be some of these examples since by road these cities are between four- and five- hours half.
With the Drone bus, not only money would be saved, but also time, since the model would be designed to land easily in small spaces, which would make the use of this air transport more accessible without the need for large landing strips.
What is it made of and what will the design of the Drone bus be like?
The aircraft design will make extensive use of aluminum alloys and composite materials alongside parts produced by additive manufacturing (3D printing).
The eight electric motors, located in pairs on both sides of the fuselage, at the front and rear of the fuselage, will tilt for vertical take-off and landing and offer horizontal thrust during flight, while the fuselage will take care of the lift. One aspect to highlight is that the propeller blades driven by the engines, in addition to being fair, will have a variable pitch to better adapt them to each phase of flight.
The necessary batteries will be housed in a pod that will form the lower part of the fuselage and that can be replaced after each flight by one with its batteries charged, while the used one goes to the recharging station.
And what would be the security measures of the Drone bus?
As for safety measures in flight, Kelekona relies on two radars, located above and below the fuselage, and video cameras that cover all sectors around the aircraft that give “100 miles of additional environmental awareness to detect and avoid unknown aircraft, birds, climatic anomalies or infrastructures that do not appear in the charts and maps”.
As we can see, drones and innovation go hand in hand, because every day we can see more uses of drones in our daily lives. The use of drones is increasingly common in all areas and work areas, every day at Simply Drones we are amazed at how much can be achieved by making creative and responsible use of drones.
At Simply drones we also do wonderful things with drones, encourage yourself to discover our services and who knows, maybe one day we can also take you home.
SOURCES, AUTHORS AND REFERENCES:
Silvia Monroy
Author
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]]>The post Drone solar inspections increase efficiency at power plants appeared first on Simply Drones.
]]>The Problem:
Every PV system faces problems with underperformance, system component failure, and the influence of performance by weather conditions. These problems reduce the energy efficiency of the photovoltaic (PV) solar park causing energy losses. Traditional regular inspections of these solar farms can mean a waste of money and time. It can also pose a risk to workers due to various factors such as terrain, height, weather conditions, and more.
The Problem:
Every PV system faces problems with underperformance, system component failure, and the influence of performance by weather conditions. These problems reduce the energy efficiency of the photovoltaic (PV) solar park causing energy losses. Traditional regular inspections of these solar farms can mean a waste of money and time. It can also pose a risk to workers due to various factors such as terrain, height, weather conditions, and more.
Before drones:
Traditional solar field assessments consist of inspecting each panel with portable thermal imaging cameras to check for faulty cells or cables. During this process, staff must manually track the location of faulty panels for further maintenance. Given the dimensions of most solar farms, this inspection method is inefficient and creates a heavier workload for maintenance and operations teams. Only about 2-3% of panels are inspected in many large plants.
The solution is Simply Drones:
With our DJI M210 drone and DJI Zenmuse XT2 camera, we take visual and thermal images of solar panels from the air.
We use the most advanced platforms on the market for industrial applications.
The visual images make it easy to detect problems of all kinds, such as dirt, shade, animal nests, or physical failures of the solar panel.
Thermal images taken by our infrared sensors, helps us identify areas where the panels are not operating at full capacity saving time and money.
The solution is Simply Drones:
With our DJI M210 drone and DJI Zenmuse XT2 camera, we take visual and thermal images of solar panels from the air.
We use the most advanced platforms on the market for industrial applications.
The visual images make it easy to detect problems of all kinds, such as dirt, shade, animal nests, or physical failures of the solar panel.
Thermal images taken by our infrared sensors, helps us identify areas where the panels are not operating at full capacity saving time and money.
The results:
Drones increase the efficiency and precision of solar inspections, reducing inspection time by 70% compared to traditional methods. Our teams can perform large area inspections collecting high-resolution RGB and thermal images. Using drones, 250 hectares can be monitored in one day, which would take 3-4 months with traditional inspection methods.
Surprising no? Now we invite you to know about our services. At Simply Drones, we make it simply.
Silvia Monroy
Author
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]]>The post When is it a good option to contract Aerial Thermography services? appeared first on Simply Drones.
]]>Thermography is an advanced technique that aims to discern the temperatures of an object or area without the need for physical contact. From the infrared rays the data of the object of study are shown, where through the different thermal palettes these data are interpreted, at Simply Drones, we make use of the White-Hot palette, where we can see the temperatures through a scale of grays in which warmer objects are shown in white and cooler objects in black. The images not only speak of temperature but also speak of thermal patterns, behaviors, and anomalies that must be interpreted to obtain the desired results and thus contribute to the efficiency of the aerial thermography service.
There are many applications that thermography has, among which the maintenance of industrial equipment, the inspection of solar panels, weather predictions, military maneuvers, space observation, etc. stand out.
SOURCES, AUTHORS AND REFERENCES:
Silvia Monroy
Author
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]]>The post Tesla and the origin of drones appeared first on Simply Drones.
]]>Nikola Tesla was one of the greatest inventors and scientists in the history of mankind, even though many of his findings fell into oblivion or it was others who profited from his ideas. Few people know the history of Tesla and the origin of drones, since one of the great inventions of Tesla was, neither more nor less than the invention of one of the first drones.
It was the year 1898, still in the 19th century, and Tesla was going to a great exhibition at the mythical Madison Square Garden in New York. There he prepared a great show, since, at the time, popular support was needed to get good funding.
In a pond, the inventor and showman remotely controlled a small boat with three antennas directed by a radio signal. Then, he asked the public to chant orders to the invention, which moved perfectly underwater, although it was Tesla himself who operated remote control, following people’s orders. This was the first application of radio waves in history, which means that Tesla’s patent No. 613,809 was the cradle of modern robotics in drones. And in that body of water floated an enormous possible military advance.
That same year, he obtained a patent for this primitive water drone, which he tried to sell to the United States Navy without much success. This type of device did not arouse the interest of the military until the arrival of World War I.
A few years later, in 1903, the great Spanish engineer Leonardo Torres presented his version of a remote-controlled drone, the Telekino, much more elaborate than the Tesla model and that allowed to fully handle a small boat, however, due to the lack of financing this invention could not be carried out. Finally, and many years later, in late 1946, the US Air Force approved a program to develop three types of drones for use as training targets. Of the three, the Q-2 model, was the most important, becoming the father of a class of “target” aircraft built by the Ryan Aeronautical Company.
The development of drones collapsed for decades due to the low need for them because of the success and developments in the field of missiles. In the mid-1950s the United States Army developed a type of long-range missile with a precision guidance system, somewhat more like a small aircraft.
In May 1964, the United States began considering sending drones to replace its U-2s on spy missions over Cuba. The “fireflies” operated by the United States were later used for surveillance in the so-called “sensitive areas”, the main theaters of the Cold War: among them Cuba, North Korea, and the People’s Republic of China. For many years and until today, drones have been used to facilitate military operations and government investigations. As we can see, drones were created to gain a military advantage against the enemy, the technology that has been developed for this has evolved over the years.
Step by step, unmanned aircraft were acquiring new capabilities that allow their use outside the military sphere. Currently, the applications of drones in the civil field are spreading and changing the traditional models of work in sectors such as agriculture, aerial thermography, surveying, inspection, and maintenance of industrial infrastructure, as well as tasks in the audiovisual sector and others very diverse.
Interesting, right? At Simply Drones, we are enthusiasts of solar energy, innovation, and the history of drones. We invite you to know our portfolio of services and continue to inform you on our blog about technology, drones, and more.
SOURCES, AUTHORS AND REFERENCES:
-
INTERNATIONAL CIVIL AVIATION ORGANIZATION (2011): “Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS)”. Circular 328, AN / 190.
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NEWCOME, L. R. (2004): «Unmanned Aviation. A Brief History of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles ». American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Reston, Virginia (USA)
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VALAVANIS, K. P. and VACHTSEVANOS, G. J. Editors’ (2015): «Handbook of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles». Springer Science + business Media. Dordrecht (Holland).
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AUSTIN, R. (2010): «Unmanned Aircraft Systems. UAVS Design, Development and Deployment ». John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Chichester (UK).
- REJADO, C. THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE DRONES. HEMAV. E.T.S.I. Aeronautics. Polytechnic University of Madrid
Silvia Monroy
Author
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]]>Production: 7.050 kWh
Consumption: 6.750 kWh
Access: 78%
Offset: 104%
Size: 8.1 kW
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]]>Production: 103.839 kWh
Consumption: 327.425 kWh
Access: 97%
Offset: 32%
Size: 82,5 kW
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