Two recent projects this week, two very different assets, one shared need: accurate information about places that are slow, costly or risky to reach on foot. 

The Teesside project team need regular, auditable cut and fill quantities and stockpile volumes for valuations and reconciliation. Walking piles with a GNSS rover takes hours, puts people on unstable material, takes surveyors and engineers away from more important tasks, and samples only a scatter of points.

Stockpiles captured from 3D terrain model

We fly a repeatable survey plan with RTK positioning tied to ground control, processing each flight into a georeferenced surface model. Industry evidence consistently puts volumetric accuracy for this method within 1-3%, comparable to a well run GNSS rover survey, with vertical surface accuracy around 3-5cm. Capture takes minutes per visit, and nobody sets foot on a pile.

In Morecambe, a commercial rooftop array was generating less than expected, but ground level electrical checks had not located the fault, and a conventional roof inspection would have meant scaffold or access equipment and working at height.

None functioning string identified, much wamer temperatures compared to the adjacent string

We flew a radiometric thermal camera over the array in line with IEC 62446-3, the international standard for thermographic PV inspection, in suitable irradiance. Electrical faults show as clear temperature patterns: a string running oddly cool suggests a disconnect or blown fuse, while a module with one warm third is the classic signature of a failed bypass diode.

A survey is only as useful as the deliverable it produces. A volume you can defend in a valuation meeting, or an anomaly map a contractor can act on the same day, is worth far more than a folder of aerial photographs.

Read the full article: https://blog.drone-works.uk/post/case-study-earthworks-thermal-solar-20260717