Data Acquisition PV
- fabian.wolfertstetter
- Christoph Prahl
Owned by fabian.wolfertstetter
Below is a checklist of what you need to keep in mind when it comes to data acquisition
Before flight day
Make sure that all info requested in Checklist solar plant data PV has been sent to Volateq
Volateq team informed you that the flight routes are ready for your site
make sure your RTK service is active and connecting on your drone. For more info see: RTK and NTRIP setup
We recommend using the VolaFly Drone App. Instructions on how to install it on your drone controller can be found here: VolaFly App: Download and installation
Check if you have a fast enough SD card. Recommended SD cards: SanDisk Extreme 128GB V30 microSDXC or SanDisk Extreme Pro 128GB V30 microSDXC
Conditions and preparations before drone flight
weather:
Wind speed below 5 m/s
Less than 10% of sky are covered by clouds. If a cloud casts shadow on parts of the solar field during the drone flight, the flight has to be repeated some 10-15 minutes after the cloud has left
The weather is clear and sunny, no clouds, with irradiance (plane of array POA) > 650 W/m2
solar field:
The solar field has to be in full operation, make sure there is no clipping in any part of the solar field at the time of flight.
Defects can only be detected by thermography for operational modules. All other modules will be shown as “open circuit”
Defects can only be detected by thermography for operational modules. All other modules will be shown as “open circuit”
Solar field is clean. Solar field cleanliness > 0.97 (less than 3% soiling losses)
Only for tracking PV field:
make sure to complete your flights within no more than 2 hours before or after solar noon.
all modules must be at the same tracking angle. modules with tracking angles diverting from the nominal value cannot be evaluated
No shadowing of adjacent rows during flights - especially in winter!
Drone:
Make sure the drone settings are put correctly depending on which app you use for flight execution:
Avoid touching any controller wheel or button during the flight, you might change the video settings. As a result, this flight cannot be evaluated
Only start the flight with a full drone battery
if solar plant conditions change during flight execution by more than 10% (cloud passage, tracking motor malfunction, …): pause image acquisition (go to home) and resume after 10-15 mins in constant conditions
After flight
Further Reads:
VolaFly App: Download and installation
Volafly App: Flight mission execution