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 verifiable anchors we benchmark against rather than the recycled blog figures. 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; Volateq has published €45 per MWp for its analysis subscription. On the full-service side, a peer-reviewed comparison of aerial inspection methods reported a 41 MW plant inspected by drone for roughly €4,180 all-in (about €102 per MW). Enterprise platforms — Raptor Maps, Sitemark, Zeitview — quote privately.
On time in the air: commercial surveys run roughly 10–15 minutes of flying per MW (Raptor Maps cites ~30 MW per drone per day at its standard resolution), while strict IEC-condition surveys take longer — the IEA-PVPS Task 13 programme reports 75–150 minutes per MW for standard-compliant drone work, 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 of inspected capacity, with an AUD $500 minimum per inspection. A 20% deposit starts the job; the balance is due on report delivery. Sites above 1,500 MW get a custom quote.
| Site size | Capacity | Analysis cost (AUD) |
|---|---|---|
| 1,000 panels × 500 W | 0.5 MW | $500(minimum applies) |
| 10,000 panels × 500 W | 5 MW | $500(minimum applies) |
| 100,000 panels × 500 W | 50 MW | $3,750 |
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
- 01Count your panels — from the datasheet, single-line diagram or asset register.
- 02Note the nameplate wattage per panel (commonly 400–600 W); panels × wattage is your capacity in MW.
- 03Enter both numbers in the estimator for an instant fixed quote.
- 04Read the quote: $75/MW, $500 minimum, 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.
Get your fixed quote now
Flat-rate analysis: you fly the site, we grade every thermal frame and deliver a severity-ranked report. Estimate the cost for your site size in seconds — no account, no sales call.