Aerial Drone use is completely changing the way that we conduct wind turbine surveys in the UK.
Inspection services for turbine blades on wind farms can now be achieved with modern aerial drones that can capture defects more accurately that the human eye does.
Our advanced commercial grade aerial drones can conduct inspections of turbine blades, looking for defects and damage from weather and wear. This inspection survey includes a complete measurement process of each wind turbine so that this data can be correlated to the photos (pinpointing the exact sections that have damage). This data can be archived to review and compare to future data and to track damage over time (something that was until recently impossible).
UAV Drone wind turbine inspections can be performed 6 times faster than more conventional inspection methods. This speed does not come at the expense of quality however. The detailed data capturing of a drone far exceeds what the human eye can take in and eliminates the need for staff to work at height whilst inspecting the blades.
With the constant expansion of the UK wind farm energy network, the need to conduct fast, effective and precise turbine inspections is vital. And with the use of UAV drones to conduct wind farm inspections, you can reduce the loss of production time. Traditional methods of inspection including rope access teams abseiling down each blade or using elevated platforms to identify and log damage on each blade has always been a slow method of inspection. With Balmore Aerial Services and our UAV Drones, we can perform nine blade inspections per drone flight (dependent on weather conditions and distance between each turbine). That number grows when the inspection is carried out on smaller blade wind turbines.
Through our experience in the industry, we know that the average rope access blade inspection crew can only examine three large blades per day.
The advantages of using UAV drones to conduct wind farm turbine blade inspection is clear. It is a more efficient, safe and precise way to inspect wind turbines
Workers are not working at height to conduct inspections
6 times faster inspections with drones means that your wind farm suffers less down time thanks to shorter inspection times.
Using aerial drones can be 3 times more cost effective than traditional rope access methods.
Our aerial drones are operated in the same weather environment that rope access and elevated access platforms work within.
Each Balmore Aerial Services Drone Pilot is Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) approved.
Internal Blade Inspection
Using indoor/internal drone inspection for internal wind turbine blade inspection can cut the inspection time in half and drastically increase the number of turbine blades which can be inspected.
Our confined spaces drone inspection work is commonly used for difficult access locations and few fit the bill more than the internal inspection of a wind turbine. Using our Elios 2 indoor drone equipped with protective cage, we can safely inspect the inside of a wind turbine and the blades for a more accurate and detailed visual inspection.
If you would like to know more about the advantages of using Balmore Aerial Services and our Aerial Drones to conduct wind turbine blade inspection surveys, please contact our head office on 0141 370 4037
