Powering Progress: Tethered Drones in Renewable Energy

The Role of Inspections in Renewable Energy

From Egyptian sundials to Roman aqueducts to Dutch windmills, humans have always used sun, water, and wind as clean ways to make their lives more efficient, safer, and prosperous. While these innovations are well-known and understood, what is less recognized is the routine maintenance and inspections that kept them operating for hundreds or even thousands of years. Today, we harness the sun, wind, and water through solar panels, wind turbines, and hydroelectric power plants, and, like our ancestors, regular inspections remain critical to their operation.

Challenges of Traditional Inspection Methods

Inspecting a 4,000-acre solar farm, a 295-foot wind turbine, or a 900-foot dam is challenging even under ideal conditions. When these structures are placed in extreme environments—desert solar farms, offshore wind turbines, or mountain-pass hydroelectric plants—inspection costs rise, while efficiency and effectiveness suffer. Whether the inspection requires precise sensor readings, real-time visuals, photographs, or video, traditional inspection methods have limitations, which become even more pronounced in harsh conditions.

The Limitations of Current Inspection Techniques

The standard "crew and a truck" method remains a common approach because it puts a flexible and mobile expert team on-site. However, this method is constrained by safety risks, accuracy concerns, and the timeliness of results. Equipping the crew with an untethered drone carrying high-tech cameras or sensors extends their reach, enhances technical capabilities, and improves safety. Yet, this approach requires landing the drone, removing the memory card, and manually downloading the data—often at the end of the day or even the week at an offsite location. If something was missed, the only option is to dispatch another crew, leading to additional costs and delays.

How Tethered Drone Systems Transform Inspections

Using the right tethered drone systems for these inspections merges the expertise and flexibility of a crew, the mobility and safety of a drone, and the enhanced technical capabilities of an HLTUAS. Despite being tethered, these drones can reach most, if not all, of the same locations as untethered drones. Wireless data transfer speed and bandwidth constraints limit the capabilities of standard drones, which must store their data on memory cards for later retrieval. In contrast, an HLTUAS can be equipped with heavier, more advanced cameras and sensors—often more than one simultaneously. Furthermore, its high-definition, data-intensive inspection results can be transmitted to the ground in real time for immediate processing and backhaul. This means that if additional detail is required or a gap in the inspection arises, it can be addressed immediately, eliminating costly repeat site visits.

A More Efficient and Reliable Future with Tethered Drones

As in the past, regular and accurate inspections are crucial to maximizing the benefits of harnessing the sun, wind, and water. With tethered drones, we can now conduct these inspections more effectively, efficiently, and safely than ever before, ensuring the continued progress of renewable energy solutions.