Solevi, a German electroluminescence (EL) inspection company, has launched drone-based electrical inspection services for rooftop solar installations in Germany with plans to further automate and expand geographically.
German electroluminescence (EL) inspection company Solevi started offering drone-based electrical measurement services on rooftops in Germany almost a year ago.
“The services we offer are EL inspection and dark IV curve measurements,” says Benjamin Eichel, CEO of Solevi. pv magazinewith some examples of the drone-based inspection scenarios that Solevi typically covers, such as hail, snow load or lightning damage surveys.
Since its launch, the company has also found demand for other services such as commissioning checks with a focus on installation faults and diode defect detection services to identify open or shorted circuits, as well as string planning services using the technology to provide post-installation string plans. in “the shortest possible” time.
“We do the string planning service for older systems where the original plans have been lost, or for newly built systems where the installation was poorly documented, or where the installer never provided a string plan at all,” Eichel explains.
The field inspection system is equipped with a gimbal, a full-frame camera with an electroluminescent (EL) lens and a multicopter-type Matrice drone made by China-based DJI. “We also use a self-developed computing unit, a radio frequency connection and a base station. We connect and power PV strings using a self-developed contact unit. On the software side, we have developed command and control software and analysis software,” said Eichel.
The German startup develops technology to improve its inspection services. “The goal is to make EL inspection fast and cost-efficient. In the field, the most important thing is to speed up setup time, flight time and string connection,” said Eichel. “The most important part of software development is to speed up evaluation and report generation. We are currently introducing machine learning algorithms for image analysis.”
According to the company, Solevi is the only independent service provider in Europe with permission to fly EL drone systems over populated areas. Although it may operate across the EU and in Switzerland, Germany has been the main market for its services so far. Partnerships in other European countries are currently being discussed.
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