Albuquerque is one of the sunniest metros in America — over 300 days of sun working every panel in town. Drone inspection reads a whole array in minutes: hot cells, dead strings, soiling, and wiring faults, without a ladder or a shutdown.
FAA Part 107 Certified · Fully Insured · LAANC Authorized · 5.0★ from 271 Google reviews
Desert Drones provides FAA Part 107–certified solar panel drone inspections across the Albuquerque metro — radiometric thermal anomaly detection (hot cells, dead strings, bypass-diode failures), commissioning and warranty documentation, roof-condition surveys before installs, and routine O&M scans for residential rooftops, commercial arrays, and carport systems.
Panel-level findings across the whole system — in one flight.
Findings mapped to the array — ready for your installer, insurer, or O&M workflow.
Real solar and roofing-solar work from our portfolio — carports, rooftops, and the install coordination in between.
Whole-roof array health without a ladder — production issues, wiring faults, and soiling on the systems Albuquerque homeowners depend on.
RESIDENTIAL
Roof condition and array documentation around installs and re-roofs — the before/after record installers and roofers both need.
INSTALL · COORDINATION
Radiometric scans that read the array electrically — hot cells, dead strings, and diode failures located panel by panel.
THERMAL · DIAGNOSTICAlbuquerque's high-desert sun is the best solar resource in the Southwest outside Arizona — and the dust, wind, and hail that come with it are why arrays here earn routine scans.
Minutes in the air, findings you can act on.
Panel count, layout, and what prompted the scan — production drop, commissioning, or routine O&M.
Radiometric thermal + high-res visual passes over the full array, under irradiance conditions that make anomalies readable.
Every anomaly located by panel position and classified by severity.
Anomaly map, imagery, and findings summary by shared link — ready for your installer or insurer.
Albuquerque's solar economics are great — its conditions are demanding. That's the case for inspection.
Panels here work harder than almost anywhere — and failures cost more production when they happen.
High-desert soiling is real — scans quantify what cleaning is actually worth.
Summer cells bring hail and hard rain — post-storm documentation supports claims and catches latent damage.
New Mexico's early solar wave is aging into warranty and O&M territory — routine scans catch failures while they're still claimable.
An array inspection is an electrical diagnostic, not a photo op — radiometric discipline and coverage are what make the findings real.
Solar clients often add these — same flight when it makes sense.
Yes — radiometric thermal shows hot cells, dead strings, and bypass-diode failures as clear temperature signatures, located panel-by-panel across the array.
No — arrays are inspected live, under load, which is exactly when electrical faults show up in thermal.
Yes — rooftop residential, commercial, and carport systems across the Albuquerque metro.
Yes — pre-install roof condition surveys are one of our most common installer requests; they protect both the installer and the homeowner.
Under good irradiance for electrical faults; after a storm for damage claims; at commissioning for a warranty baseline.
FAA Part 107 certified and insured with $2M liability coverage, with LAANC pulled for Albuquerque's Class C airspace.
Rated 5.0★ from 271 verified Google reviews across our locations.
John and team are the consummate professionals! Very reliable, quick, and high quality deliverables!
Professional, efficient, and easy to work with. The team delivered clean, high-quality aerials and communicated clearly throughout the project.
Needed work done quickly for drone photography. They responded quickly, knew exactly what was required, and explained it well — great customer service.
John was a professional and very knowledgeable. He made the process of getting drone footage seamless and did an exceptional job.
Absolutely amazing experience with Desert Drones. They did a shoot for my business and made my product really speak for itself!
John is a true professional. Every time we need drone photography or videography done, he is excited to take on the project.
Tell us the system and what prompted the scan — we'll quote the inspection and get you panel-level findings.
