IEC 62446-3 Compliant Thermal

Drone Solar Farm Surveys.

Compare quotes from specialist UK drone operators for thermal and visual inspection of utility-scale PV arrays — hotspots, bypass-diode failures, soiling, and panel-level defect mapping delivered straight to your O&M team.

“Every drone pilot on this network is personally vetted by me — insurance, qualifications, flight history.”

Peter Leslie · Founder & GVC Drone Pilot

Trusted by site managers & agencies across the UK

Need a solar farm inspected?

Post your details to compare quotes from solar-specialist drone pilots.

Walking a 50MWp site with a hand-held IR camera is madness.

Asset managers, O&M contractors, and solar funds still try to string-test every table manually. Drone thermography finds the same faults in a single morning — with production data the walk-out will never match.

Lost Generation Revenue

A single underperforming string can cost a 50MWp site thousands in lost ROC/CfD revenue per month. Drone thermography finds under-producing modules on day one rather than the next O&M cycle.

Hidden Cell & Diode Faults

Hotspots, bypass-diode failures, and PID losses rarely show up on inverter-level monitoring until performance has already degraded. Panel-level thermography catches them before the warranty window closes.

Walk-Out Labour Costs

Hand-held IV-curve tracing across 150,000+ modules on a utility-scale site is weeks of work. A drone covers the same ground in hours and produces a georef'd panel-level defect map the walk-out can never match.

Compliant PV thermography is not a hobby job.

By Peter Leslie, Founder & GVC Drone Pilot

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IEC 62446-3 sets out strict conditions for aerial thermography: minimum irradiance, wind limits, camera resolution, and qualified interpretation. Without those, the defect map is nothing more than a set of pretty pictures.

Every solar survey on this network is flown by drone operators with ITC Level 1/2 thermography, calibrated radiometric cameras, and a CAA Operational Authorisation. They carry £5M+ public liability as standard.

The result is a defect register that warranty teams, insurers, and lenders' technical advisors accept without challenge.

IEC 62446-3 Compliant

ITC & £5M Public Liability

Outputs your O&M team can action.

Our network operators deliver survey-grade outputs ready for warranty claims, lender's technical advisor audits, and routine O&M work packs.

Panel-Level Defect Map

Every defective module is tagged with GPS coordinates, table and row ID, defect classification (hotspot, PID, bypass-diode, soiling), and delta-T measurement.

Radiometric Mosaic

A georeferenced radiometric thermal ortho of the entire array, allowing re-analysis at any time. Perfect for year-on-year performance comparisons and lender's TA submissions.

O&M Work Pack

Prioritised fault list with recommended remediations, cross-referenced to warranty lots and module serials where available. Ready to hand directly to the O&M contractor.

Book your solar survey in 3 steps.

We connect you with IEC 62446-3 capable specialists, instantly.

Describe the Site

Tell us the site capacity, module type, and whether you need pre-commissioning sign-off or annual O&M. Takes under two minutes.

Compare Specialists

We route your brief to thermography-qualified solar drone operators in your region. You receive competitive quotes with output formats and turnaround times.

Inspect & Report

Your drone pilot flies the array under compliant irradiance, and delivers a packaged report with defect map, radiometric mosaic, and O&M work pack.

Start Your Project Brief

Saving funds six figures in lost generation.

See how solar asset managers, O&M contractors, and lenders' technical advisors rely on drone solar surveys through our network.

"Our 38MWp site in Cornwall was underperforming by 3% against P50 and the inverter data couldn't tell us why. The drone survey pinpointed 412 hotspot modules and a whole string with failed bypass diodes. Warranty claim filed the next week."

Oliver H.

Solar Asset Manager, Bath

"We needed pre-commissioning sign-off on a new 75MWp site and the LTA wanted IEC 62446-3 evidence. The drone survey delivered a compliant radiometric mosaic and a clean defect map. Acceptance went through without conditions."

Niamh O.

EPC Project Lead, Glasgow

"We used the panel-level defect map to build an O&M work pack my field crew could follow down the rows with a tablet. The whole 22MWp site was remediated inside a fortnight. No more wandering with a hand-held IR camera."

Freya L.

O&M Manager, Norwich

Solar Survey FAQ

Technical questions on IEC 62446-3, fly-time windows, and deliverables.

Is your survey IEC 62446-3 compliant?

Yes. Drone operators fly under the IEC 62446-3 category 2 / category 3 conditions as agreed on scope: irradiance above 600 W/m², wind under 4 m/s, panel temperature steady, camera NETD under 50 mK, and interpretation by an ITC Level 1 or Level 2 thermographer. Reports cite the exact conditions achieved on the day.

When is the best time to fly a PV thermal survey in the UK?

The best window is late spring through early autumn, between roughly 10:00 and 15:00 on a clear day, when irradiance exceeds 600 W/m² and the array is at stable operating temperature. UK-wide, drone operators target April to September and flex by weather.

Does the site need to be offline for the survey?

No — the survey must be flown with the array exporting to grid so each module is under electrical load and cell-level faults produce a detectable delta-T. Zero production loss during the flight.

Do I get raw imagery as well as the report?

Yes. Every brief includes the panel-level defect map, the radiometric mosaic (R-JPEG files preserved for re-analysis), the O&M work pack, and the full raw visual image set. Files are delivered via secure cloud link within 5–10 working days depending on site size.