Photo voltaic Energy World has devoted its March 2024 protection to set up ideas for photo voltaic contractors huge and small. You possibly can learn the remainder of our Q&As within the journal and on-line right here.
For perception into the “set up support” section, SPW talked with Brad Knudsen, product advertising supervisor at Scanifly, about how drones and superior aerial imagery have remodeled residential photo voltaic design and set up.
How does utilizing drones and aerial imagery assist photo voltaic contractors in eventual hands-on set up?
Utilizing photogrammetry-derived measurements from geotagged drone information ensures that closing designs and engineering paperwork are completely correct — no change orders or revisions will happen through the construct course of. Due to this fact, installers utilizing plan units based mostly on Scanifly layouts are assured the array will all the time match on set up day.
Extra particularly, installers can entry the Scanifly 3D mannequin of the property on their cellular units. This digital duplicate helps conduct security walk-throughs, get full website context and plan for the challenge earlier than they arrive on website. Discipline groups can even discuss with annotated photographs for any pertinent data from surveyors and designers, and consequently, installers save time, enhance security and are extra ready for every job. Installers can even evaluate preliminary designs to onsite designs side-by-side inside Scanifly, giving them context for the ultimate challenge.
Many installers should full checklists for security, website setup, stock updates and job completion. Typically, installers use a smartphone to take random images, which may be disorganized, sporadic and miss essential information. Utilizing Scanifly’s cellular app and checklists, contractors can standardize and centralize all subject information assortment. Discipline groups can customise their checklists and cellular kinds to adequately seize the handfuls of information factors wanted to finish every challenge. Installers can annotate images with solar-specific labels so as to add significant context for post-install audits and manage all media into albums for fast and straightforward overview of the finished challenge.
Why ought to installers have their very own drone?
Drones utilizing RGB cameras (the usual environmental sensor for normal imagery and movies) enable installers to:
- Shortly look at the roof’s well being and doc any broken areas earlier than the set up begins to deal with them with the property proprietor and keep away from being held liable.
- Simply affirm and document that the group follows all security protocols with onsite drone photographs.
- Doc set up progress and completion for advertising and promotional functions with out climbing again on the roof or scheduling an extra website go to.
Thermal drones with infrared cameras and sensors enable installers to detect sizzling spots and doc system efficiency safely. A particular use-case is to substantiate {that a} system has been operationalized and dealing sufficiently, particularly on a brand new building property which may not be absolutely electrified.
Some drones embody each digicam varieties, which could be a useful mixture for installers. And cheaper drones just like the Mavic Mini can be utilized in most install-specific conditions.
Having drones in-house additionally allows profession improvement by creating alternatives to upskill staff and improve retention on the firm. As a reminder, you solely want one FAA-licensed pilot per crew. The lead installer is an efficient candidate for this.
How has design software program developed in the previous couple of years, and what advances can we count on within the coming years?
3D modeling has gotten extremely refined. Designers can create extremely detailed and correct website representations, together with surrounding buildings, and run exact onsite shading analyses. We imagine photogrammetry at present offers one of the best cost-benefit ratio for residential and industrial photo voltaic designs. Utilizing photogrammetry-generated website replicas helps create designs which are completely correct on set up day, reduce roof time and are scalable.
Incorporating LiDAR information has additionally led to extra environment friendly, site-specific distant designs. Nevertheless, an onsite shading evaluation is commonly at the very least 30% extra correct than a distant shading evaluation and may all the time be accomplished earlier than finalizing a challenge. LiDAR is right when creating distant designs and preliminary manufacturing estimates in lots of areas, facilitating a simpler gross sales course of. Regardless, designers ought to by no means solely use distant information for closing manufacturing figures. Happily, integrating distant LiDAR information right into a drone-based 3D scene helps inform the styles and sizes of dormant deciduous bushes vital for correct shade evaluation — one of many many benefits of integrating a number of information sources for designing PV methods.
Efforts to design photo voltaic initiatives have gotten safer too. Digital viewshed expertise permits designers to mechanically conduct whole-roof and per-module onsite shading evaluation as precisely as a Solmetric SunEye with out setting foot on the roof.
Considerate automation has drastically sped up the design course of from preliminary layouts to allowing. AutoCAD exports of exact drone-based designs with sq. corners and completely positioned panels allow the creation of stamped permit-ready plan units inside 48 hours.
Native cellular apps with customizable kinds and checklists digitize subject operations (survey, set up, upkeep, and so forth.) and assist centralize all challenge information in a single place — merging subject information with distant imagery, design information and engineering paperwork. PV design suites not simply embody the design course of however function inside an end-to-end platform the place information strikes in actual time throughout all challenge levels and customers.
We’re trying ahead to extra advances in machine studying, AI and augmented actuality. Anticipate algorithms to automate extra of the design course of. Photo voltaic design software program will proceed to enhance its skill to auto-generate module layouts, establish stringing patterns and modify for site- and energy-specific targets, vastly decreasing handbook design time. AR options would let designers visualize PV methods overlaid immediately on the real-world atmosphere via tablets or headsets. This might current big developments in website surveys and on-site/back-office collaboration.
That is all essential as a result of extra exact website evaluations and clever automation translate to really correct onsite shading and manufacturing estimates with out ever compromising security. This extra environment friendly course of can scale back contractors’ insurance coverage premiums and instill confidence in monetary suppliers that manufacturing can be spot on. Person-friendly instruments and new AI options additionally make design capabilities obtainable to a broader vary of execs, not simply essentially the most skilled engineers.
