After several years of work, AESA, the Spanish aviation safety agency, has authorised Solardrone to fly with the pilot away from the plant. We are the first solar inspection company to achieve this. The drone leaves its dock at the plant itself and flies beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS). The pilot flies it remotely, from Trujillo. At the plant, one support person on the ground is enough.
How it works
The drone is housed in a docking station installed at the plant. The pilot launches it from the dock and flies it remotely, from Trujillo, beyond visual line of sight. These are not autonomous flights: every flight has a pilot in command, who can intervene at any time. At the plant, one support person on the ground is enough.
It is an operational authorisation in the specific category of EU Regulation 2019/947, granted after a SORA risk assessment. We explain this route and the others in Are autonomous drone flights legal at solar plants in Europe?
What changes for O&M
Something very specific: there is no longer any need to send a pilot to the plant every time a flight is due. Until now, every flight meant sending a pilot to the plant; with the pilot working remotely, a flight is scheduled like any other maintenance task. Frequency, capture modality and scope are still agreed for each project.
The limits of the authorisation
For now, the authorisation covers two specific plants, with flights in daylight and good visibility, outside controlled airspace. It does not apply to any plant: adding more means applying to AESA again, and that is our next step. At other plants, capture is still done with the pilot on site.
How many times a year does a pilot go to each plant today?
If you run O&M, that is the number worth checking across your portfolio. Tell us about it and we will prepare a free personalised study for your case. For the technical detail, our guide to drone-in-a-box BVLOS inspection of solar plants in Spain explains how a dock works and what to ask a provider, and the Argos FAQ sums up how we capture the data.