Can Drones Optimize Wind Farm Maintenance?

Few people ascend to the heights of a wind turbine. Up there, energy professionals engage in maintenance among high-flying birds and, in recent years, drones. These devices unlock countless conveniences in wind farm maintenance. What do they include, and is the effectiveness of delivering results worthy of the investment?

The Impact of Wind Farms on Energy Management

Wind farms have been pivotal in shifting the culture of energy management and usage. Despite wind not being constantly available, it accounted for 2,100 terawatt-hours of global electricity in 2022. Wind farms are critical for diversifying sustainable generators because turbines are relatively established and funded.

Their presence supports up-and-coming options. Expanding wind will enhance grid stability as it undergoes modernization in the U.S. and other nations attempt to amplify capacity to handle eco-friendly tech development. Additionally, their intermittence encourages electricity professionals to create adaptable control systems that are considerate of environmental volatility.

Offshore wind farms create a new need for economical, safe maintenance solutions and power generation. This spurs growth in research and development to make turbines more advanced and cost-effective, producing more energy for less.

Wind farms are also changing the sector by reducing stress on natural resources. Fossil fuels take a greater toll on the environment, but wind farms are not guilt-free, as they need steel, fiberglass and more. Compared to wind, the resources and processes necessary for coal production yield a carbon footprint 90 times larger.

The Way Drones Change Electricity Work

There are advantages and disadvantages to incorporating drones into wind farm maintenance practices. How do they affect employees?

Budgets

Maintenance costs for wind projects vary based on their location, though overall prices have decreased for initial installations since their peak in 2009. The average upkeep for land-based farms is $40 per kilowatt-hour or greater per year.

Offshore wind was significantly more expensive, but this is an opportunity for drones to shine. Because they offer remote surveillance, they could be the reason maintenance costs drop significantly. The technology prevents the need for expensive transportation and labor costs, especially to remote offshore locations.

Safety

Drones also improve budgets by reducing the number of safety incidents. If energy workers do not have to climb a turbine’s tall ladders or stand atop high towers, then there are fewer risks associated with maintenance.

Power and construction contractors face heights often, which is why 36% of fatalities are associated with falls. Technology could make this number closer to zero. Drones also perform inspections in a fraction of the time, boosting efficiency and preventing workers from spending hours in the elements in harm’s way.

Skills Proficiencies 

However, drones are imperfect, and energy workers should remain aware of a few of their drawbacks if implementation is intended. Leveraging drones for maintenance reviews could cause unintended skill gaps. For example, if advanced imaging automates risk identification, workers do not get hands-on experience with diagnostics.

Alternatively, drone adopters may argue the insights gleaned from advanced data analytics and skills learned from piloting machinery are more useful than determining maintenance tasks. With the future demanding big data as a corporate asset and digital literacy as an employee necessity, hands-on experience may become unnecessary.

Tech Dependence

Upskilling the workforce is ideal in the digital age, but when will it be too much? Reliance on drone assets could make staff feel out of touch with their work, leading to knowledge degradation and an inability to convey common pain points to younger or new staff. Some technical expertise might be lost, even though workers may gain other types of it.

While this ties into skill deficiencies, it might also cause operational consistency issues. A corporation may have to delay inspections or waste money pushing a repair project if drones go out of commission. Is the workforce able to stand in if they are unavailable?

The Effectiveness and Improvement Opportunities for Drones on Wind Farms

While drones may have these impacts, are they effective at assisting with wind farm maintenance? Staff should start by understanding their full suite of potential abilities. They include but are not limited to:

• Inspections and surveying.
• Audio and visual data collection about specific components.
• Remote monitoring.
• Compliance audit assistance.

Research shows they lower operation and maintenance costs, keep employees safe, and boost productivity. However, drones also have limitations. What do they encompass?

Data Processing Fatigue

Drones can capture countless bytes of data, and electricity corporations may not have effective cleaning and processing systems or staff in place to organize it. Without an effective data management system and equipment oversight, teams could cause more inefficiencies in workflow.

Regulatory Hurdles

Energy workers cannot simply fly drones over wind farms, looking for fractures and rust. Navigating airspace requires specific permits, which could be prohibitively expensive and time-consuming. If companies work in populated areas near major cities, this becomes even more challenging.

Drone operators also have personal certifications, so if turnover is high, a business may need to keep investing in education for incoming staff. Constant collaboration with air traffic management organizations is critical for ensuring timely deployment and access to educational tools so the reputation of renewable power does not falter from maintenance negligence.

Connectivity and Battery Problems

Those piloting drones need to have line of sight, which requires a strong connection between the controller and machine. If 5G is not available or the drone is faulty, long distances will be a struggle and lead to inaccurate data collection or crashing equipment. Additionally, the batteries are only so powerful, especially when pushed to commercial limits for intensive tasks.

Workers should regularly review drone health before activating them for a maintenance task. Additionally, they could execute connectivity analyses or establish backup measures to ensure connections are not interrupted.

Wind Farm Maintenance Potential With Drones

Drones could be a solution for expediting wind farm maintenance while making the lives of energy employees safer, particularly for offshore locations. The technology will only become more advanced, and integration with renewable generators could spark peripherals and capability enhancements specific to the electricity management sector. The workforce should maintain curiosity about its potential growth, testing drones in their operations to see how it could advance green power adoption