For project developers, EPC and operators

Why independent

An inspection that the contractor orders and evaluates himself is of little help in a dispute. QopterVision is not involved in the construction, sells no modules and has no interest in the outcome. That is what makes the report usable as a starting condition.

Three services along the project

Handover documentation

Before the warranty period starts. Thermography of the whole system, a site sketch with continuous module numbering and an inspection report that records the condition at the time of handover. Anyone who later claims a loss of yield has a documented starting point.

Condition inspection in operation

On suspicion of a loss of yield, before the sale of a system or in a warranty case. The anomalies are located, categorised and backed with image pairs, so that your qualified electrician can check in a targeted way instead of walking the whole system.

PV Check

The same property, the same numbering, every year. Only the comparison over several years shows whether an anomaly stays stable or develops. The first round lays the basis, every further one costs less.

What you get as a result

• Inspection report as a PDF, with property data, the conditions of the measurement, findings per module and a clear recommendation
• Site sketch with continuous module numbering that also applies at the next flight
• One image pair per finding, visible spectrum and thermal image of the same section
• On request the radiometric raw data, delivery within 24 to 48 hours

What is used

DJI Matrice 4TD with a radiometric thermal camera, 640 x 512 pixels, thermal sensitivity of 50 mK or better, plus RTK for the clear assignment of the images. The resolution at the object is 1.011 mm per metre of flight altitude, so at 10 m it is 1.01 cm per pixel edge. IEC TS 62446-3 asks for no more than 3 cm per pixel edge, so the requirement is exceeded threefold.

How it is assessed

A category above the level normal is only given when two criteria are met at the same time, the temperature difference and a matching fault pattern. A threshold alone is not enough, because a warm spot can have many harmless causes. The evaluation is manual and backed in the report by the image the finding appears on.

For operators with several plants

Anyone running several plants has a different problem from a single owner. The difficulty is not the single inspection, but that the results from ten sites are comparable with each other and that the dates stay plannable through the year.

• the same method and the same categories on all sites, which makes the reports comparable with each other
• plants across Europe, inspected with the same method at every site
• a fixed module numbering per plant that stays the same for every further flight
• one date per plant per year, bundled by region or country on request
• several plants in one region on one operating day, travel is charged per operating day and not per plant
• one contact for planning, flight, assessment and report
• the report as an annex to your maintenance contract, the inspection from the air shows what a check from the ground does not

The recurring inspection itself runs as PV Check on the PV Check page. For a framework agreement send the list of sites with output and access, the offer follows from that.

What is not part of it

• No certification and no acceptance in the legal sense
• No geodetic survey, QopterVision is not a surveying office
• No electrical measurements, a finding from the image is a well founded indication and not a proof
• No figure for a loss of yield in kWh or euro, that would require electrical measurements

Price and quotation

Thermography is billed by the size of the system, above a certain size as a day rate. The figure becomes binding once the output, the location, the access and the scope you want are known. Send those four details and you get a reply and a quotation within one working day.

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