Loss Calculator and Case Study
Your solar farm could lose tens of millions of forints annually without accurate inspections.
Case Study
Solar farms have become an attractive investment as falling solar panel prices and growing demand for renewable energy have significantly shortened payback periods—from the previous 10–15 years to around 7–10 years. However, in real operational environments, panel performance is affected by many factors such as dust accumulation, bird droppings, overgrown vegetation, installation and maintenance errors, and technical issues like hotspots, string faults, and diode failures. These factors often cause energy production to fall short of financial projections, reducing the actual return on investment.
This case study examines a nearly 19 MW unattended solar farm: out of 67,856 panels, 4,690 were faulty, resulting in an annual revenue loss of approximately 79 million forints. For a scaled-up 49 MW farm, the loss rises to 153 million forints. TerraSky’s drone-based thermal and visual analysis, with centimeter-accurate geolocation, enables rapid identification of faulty or dirty panels. This allows targeted maintenance and cleaning instead of inspecting the entire farm, significantly reducing operational costs, minimizing production losses, and improving long-term efficiency and ROI for solar farms.
| Indicator | ~19 MW Solar Farm | 449 MW (Scaled) Solar Farm |
|---|---|---|
| Panels | 67 856 | 171 428 |
| Faulty Panels | 4 690 | 11 849 |
| Annual Loss | ≈ 200.000 EUR/year | ≈ 385.000 EUR/year |
What does this calculator do?
This calculator helps you estimate the annual revenue loss caused by faulty panels in your solar park. By entering the facility’s nominal capacity (MW) or the total number of panels, along with the percentage of faulty units, the calculator determines the expected number of defective panels and the estimated annual financial loss in thousands of EUR.
55 Ee calculate the estimated loss based on the data above.
If you only enter MW, the calculator calculates 280 W for each panel.
Our coverage
Flexible nationwide coverage across Hungary
TerraSky.ai
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CONTACT
Write to us if you would like to assess the condition of your solar power plant, automate your security monitoring or are looking for a custom AI or computer vision solution for drone-based or fixed-camera systems. Let’s discuss your requirements, and we will propose the optimal technical and business solution.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Where can TerraSky.ai be used?
Solar power plants, wind farms, industrial facilities, agriculture, security systems and anywhere visual and sensor-based monitoring is required.
How does the inspection work?
Drones capture RGB and thermal imagery, our AI algorithms analyze faults at panel level and generate detailed visual reports.
How long does the inspection and analysis take?
Instead of traditional timelines of several weeks, we deliver panel-level reports within days, even for solar parks with capacities of several hundred MWs.
Can I get offline access to the data?
Yes, in addition to the online report, we also provide downloadable files: an SVG site layout, .kml flight paths, and panel-level documentation with RGB and thermal images.
Are drone flights safe?
Fully compliant with all regulations, operable with BVLOS authorization and docking-station automation, enabling autonomous operation without human intervention.
Contact
Important links
TerraSky.ai
TerraSky.ai utilizes drone-based data collection and AI-powered image processing for the automated, panel-level monitoring of solar farms and industrial facilities.
