South Korean drone services company Nearthlab has worked out a partnership agreement with Axess Group, a Norwegian renewable energy company, for drone-based inspection services on the latter’s windfarm sites.

Nearthlab provides drone-based remote sensing services, and the Memorandum of Association it has just signed with Axess will see it deploy drones to conduct inspections across both onshore and offshore sites in Scandinavia and Africa, and also into future regions where Nearthlab will expand into.

“Efficient inspections are crucial for maintaining wind turbines that endure significant fatigue loads,” said Jay Choi, CEO and co-founder of Nearthlab.

“Through this partnership, our drones will be able to help numerous wind farms operate at their peak efficiency.”

The inspection data will be managed through Zoomable, Nearthlab’s cloud-based analytics platform.  

Axess Group, which began as an inspection company for the Norwegian oil and gas industry, expanded into the renewable energy sector in 2018 and has since completed over 150 projects for clients in this sector worldwide.

The organisation now serves the global wind market through its 28 offices in 22 countries – which include Angola, Ghana, Senegal and South Africa – and is on track to achieve its goal of generating 25 percent of its annual revenue from renewables within the next five years.

“Nearthlab and Axess Group share a common vision of contributing towards a sustainable future.” said Håvard Sletvold, Group Director – AIM at Axess Group.

“We are confident that our collaboration will support many clean energy producers in progressing towards a sustainable future.” 

The drone company says it was elated at this partnership, as it not only stands to increase chances of Nearthlab broadening its reach into the Scandinavian and African drone services market but also showcases its technology to a wider audience.

Drone technology for the inspection of wind turbines has come with the benefit of eliminating the risk of human personnel having to physically scale the dizzy heights of the turbines to conduct the inspections physically.  

Needless to say, there are areas where human inspectors would never dare to try and reach for safety reasons; drone can collect data from all these places in even sharper focus and resolution; going to the point of detecting issues that might escape the human eye.

A drone equipped with high-performance cameras can inspect a wind turbine without compromising workers or requiring access to the wind turbine.

In addition to minimising staff safety risk, drones provide high-resolution images of areas that climbers cannot see or access. Drones can photograph wind turbines from any angle or location, including those that individuals cannot reach.

Drones also reduce inspection time considerably, even up to 70 percent in some cases; which ensures that the turbines will not have to be shut down for prolonged periods.

A physical inspection of a single wind turbine can typically take anywhere from three to six hours, with inspectors working at dangerous height.

A wind-resistant RTK drone, on the other hand, can inspect a turbine in only about 45 minutes. As a result, an entire farm of fifteen turbines could be inspected within three days.