Drones

Drones for residential photo voltaic buildings: Sunrun and DroneDeploy

Grau Watson, CC BY-SA 3.0

Use of drones for solar systems in residential buildings: With the DroneDeploy software, Sunrun can carry out roof inspections without any risk to the workers

By Jim Magill

Drone technology is fueling the growth of another innovative industry, the residential solar energy industry.

Starting in 2019, Sunrun, the leading installer of home solar systems in the US, began working with DroneDeploy to develop a drone-based solution to the challenges of having to send its technicians to homeowners’ rooftops to take measurements time consuming and potentially dangerous work.

“We used to measure roofs by hand with tape measures. There is a lot of human error in that, ”said Paul Helm, Sunrun project manager. “Our technicians spent more than three to four hours per site, which made it really difficult to meet the goals we set for doing several surveys a day.”

Sunrun partnered with DroneDeploy to launch its drone program in the second half of 2019 and began building its fleet of drones in December of that year with the purchase of 110 DJI Mavic 2 Pro drones.

“It was DroneDeploy’s guidance that led us to this particular model because it integrated really well with their platform,” said Helm.

Use of drones for solar measurements in residential buildings: From 2 hours to 15 minutes

The company now flies around 245 drones and employs just as many construction site technicians who are Part 107 certified as drone pilots. In its peak month, Sunrun performed 7,000 drone flights using DroneDeploy’s mapping software to record data on customer rooftops from the ground. The drone program has reduced the time it takes site technicians to complete a survey to an average of 15 minutes compared to two hours for manual surveys. It has also reduced the number of solar installation problems by 35%, Sunrun said.

Helm said that before drones were used, the amount of time site technicians spent measuring a roof varied greatly. “It can take anywhere from 15 minutes for a simple rectangular roof to three and a half hours for these larger mansions in our Texas market,” he said.

DroneDeploy’s software enables Sunrun to create an interactive location view of the roof and create maps, photos, panoramas and videos.

The software package automatically takes the mapping data and converts it to a digital file to provide the measurements required to design a rooftop solar array, said Katie O’Leary, director of product marketing at DroneDeploy, in an interview. A digital file of the measurements is then sent to the designer, who can feed the data into a computer-aided design (CAD) program to create the layout of the planned solar system.

“By not putting anyone on the roof, you remove this dangerous element from the equation. You now allow them to stay on the ground and you get more accurate and up-to-date information, ”said O’Leary.

The map and model, captured by drones for solar energy in residential buildings, also give Sunrun a 3D view of the entire house that would be next to impossible for a construction technician standing on a roof. This becomes important in cases where the designer needs to see a specific part of the roof to ensure that the proposed solar system can be installed correctly in that area, Helm said.

“When DroneDeploy exports your map and model, we can now zoom in on every part of the roof and see every part of it as the drone has a 4K camera that allows us to get great detail,” he said.

Aside from increasing operational efficiency, Sunrun’s primary benefit of the drone rooftop inspection program has been the impact it has on the safety and morale of its employees.

“This is a huge benefit for us and our construction site technicians. The manual measurement of a roof is physically very demanding. It’s mentally exhausting, exhausting and exhausting, ”said Helm.

Before the company switched to drone-based roof inspections, its technicians had to climb roofs under various difficult conditions, such as on 120-degree days in Las Vegas when “the roof is about 150 degrees in the face. “he said.” Morale has risen quite a bit because at the end of the day you are not completely exhausted. “

Helm said the introduction of drone technology at Sunrun is just beginning. “We’re really just scratching the surface,” he said. “We see the potential of drones and supporting equipment to really create an autonomous site survey.”

DroneDeploy has developed a software service that enables inspectors to view a building in 3D. Just as the software company’s map and mockup system enables Sunrun technicians to perform roof inspections, DroneDeploy’s program can enable solar technicians to perform preprogrammed drone inspections of attics and other hard-to-reach interiors.

“This is absolutely life changing for us. Now a construction technician can just open the doors for the drone, let it in and fly it around, ”he said.

“Over the past few years we’ve added a lot of functionality so we’re really getting a whole perspective of a location or facility,” said O’Leary of DroneDeploy. With her company’s technology, customers like Sunrun now have the ability to connect to a 360-degree camera to capture 3D images and create digital twins of interiors, she said.

Read more about DroneDeploy: The latest version and products from DroneDeploy, funding and investments, disaster response measures, and advances in processing at your fingertips.

Jim Magill is a Houston-based writer with nearly a quarter of a century of experience relating to technical and economic developments in the oil and gas industry. After retiring as Senior Editor at S&P Global Platts in December 2019, Jim began writing about new technologies such as artificial intelligence, robots, and drones and their contribution to our society. In addition to DroneLife, Jim is a contributor to Forbes.com and his work has been featured in the Houston Chronicle, US News & World Report, and Unmanned Systems, an Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International publication.

Miriam McNabb is the Editor-in-Chief of DRONELIFE and CEO of JobForDrones, a professional marketplace for drone services, and a passionate observer of the emerging drone industry and regulatory environment for drones. Author of over 3,000 articles focusing on the commercial drone space, Miriam is an international speaker and recognized figure in the industry. Miriam graduated from the University of Chicago and has over 20 years experience in high-tech sales and marketing for emerging technologies.
For advice or writing on the drone industry, email Miriam.

TWITTER: @spaldingbarker

Subscribe to DroneLife here.

Related Articles