What a solar thermal inspection costs

Thermal inspection quotes are usually priced per megawatt of installed capacity — but what sits behind that number varies enormously between providers. Here is how the pricing works, what moves it, and how to get a fixed figure for your site in under a minute on the cost estimator.

What drives the price per MW

A full-service inspection bundles two very different jobs: the flight — mobilising a crew and drone to your site — and the analysis — turning thousands of thermal frames into a fault report. Flight cost is dominated by logistics: distance to site, crew day rates, weather stand-downs and access requirements. Analysis cost is dominated by how it's done — manual frame-by-frame review scales with site size and labour, while automated analysis doesn't. That split is why bundled quotes range so widely, and why unbundling them usually saves money: many asset owners already have a drone operator (or an in-house pilot) and only need the analysis.

Other factors that move industry quotes: minimum charges (small sites pay a floor price regardless of size, because mobilisation and reporting have fixed costs), report depth (module-level findings with locations cost more than a site-level summary when produced manually), and turnaround time.

Market context, with sources

Very few providers publish rates, so here are the anchors we benchmark against, each with where it comes from. Third-party figures were checked in September 2026 and can change without notice. Published analysis-only pricing: Scopito lists €20 per MW for software-only processing and €65 per MW for a done-for-you analysis service with a 10 MW minimum (as at September 2026). Volateq’s €45 per MWp analysis-subscription figure comes from a search-result snippet of its site rather than a page we could confirm live, so treat it as indicative only. Sitemark publishes a pricing page for its platform. For full-service Australian pricing (flight plus analysis), National Drones’ 2026 drone inspection cost guide is the most useful public reference. Enterprise platforms such as Raptor Maps and Zeitview quote privately.

On time in the air: commercial surveys run roughly 10–15 minutes of flying per MW (Raptor Maps cites about 30 MW per drone per day at its standard resolution in its public material), while strict IEC-condition surveys take longer - the IEA-PVPS Task 13 report on infrared and electroluminescence imaging for PV field applications (T13-10:2018) gives 75–150 minutes per MW for drone work flown to the standard’s conditions, against 3.75–5 hours per MW for handheld inspection. Capture requirements themselves come from IEC TS 62446-3; the full spec we analyse against is on the capture-specification page.

How our pricing works

ThermalVariations is analysis-only — you fly (or your operator does), we grade every frame. That removes the logistics variables entirely, so the price is a single flat rate: AUD $75 per megawatt ex GST of inspected capacity, with an AUD $500 minimum ex GST per inspection. A 20% deposit starts the job; the balance is due on report delivery. Sites above 1,500 MW get a custom quote. GST is added only if and when ThermalVariations is GST-registered.

Figures generated by the same pricing engine that powers the estimator. Analysis cost only — your flight costs depend on your operator.

Estimate yours in four steps

1. 01Count your panels — from the datasheet, single-line diagram or asset register.
2. 02Note the nameplate wattage per panel (commonly 400–600 W); panels × wattage is your capacity in MW.
3. 03Enter both numbers in the estimator for an instant fixed quote.
4. 04Read the quote: $75/MW ex GST, $500 minimum ex GST, 20% deposit up front and the balance on delivery.

Not sure what the report finds for the money? Browse the anomaly library — every fault class the analysis grades, with the recommended action for each — or see how findings are classified under IEC TS 62446-3.

← Back to the anomaly library