CASE C44 · AE · 2015
DEWA (Dubai): drone checks of the 600 kW rooftop PV array on its sustainable building
Dubai's utility DEWA used drones to check the 600 kW rooftop PV array on its headquarters, scanning the whole roof in under five minutes and also monitoring dust cleaning. No manual baseline or findings were given, and this is a single rooftop rather than a solar park.
| Owner | Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) |
| Provider | — |
| Location | DEWA sustainable building, Al Quoz, Dubai, United Arab Emirates |
| Aircraft | Not stated (DEWA 'Sirb' drone fleet) |
| Sensors | 4K RGB camera (20+ MP), thermal imaging (used on overhead lines) |
Before
Walk-through checks of about 9,290 m² of rooftop panels; desert dust soils panels and cuts output.
With drones
Drones image the whole roof to check panels and monitor contractors' cleaning; the same fleet checks evaporator cooling without full shutdown, photographs project progress and is testing detection of overhead-line insulator failures.
Outcomes
| Metric | Value | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| survey time | whole roof scanned in under five minutes | Reported |
| time and effort | "considerable" savings (no baseline) | Company claim |
| defects found | not reported | Reported |
Caveats & limits
- Utility announcement from 2015 relayed by trade press; no manual baseline, panel count or inspection findings.
- A single 600 kW rooftop array, not a utility-scale solar park; the article does not mention DEWA's solar park.
- Insulator-failure detection was experimental at the time.
Sources
- Drones inspect DEWA's sustainable buildingTechnical Review Middle East Full text read
- Dubai's DEWA says keen to expand use of dronesArabian Business Full text read
Sources checked: 2026-10-22