Phoenix has more sun — and more solar — than almost anywhere in the country, and a panel that's cracked, dead, or wired wrong is quietly costing its owner money in that sun every day. We fly FAA-certified aerial and thermal inspections that check an entire array, rooftop or ground-mount, for the faults you can't see from the ground: hot spots, dead cells, and offline strings.
FAA Part 107 Certified · Fully Insured · LAANC Authorized · 5.0★ from 271 Google reviews
Desert Drones is an FAA Part 107–certified drone services company providing aerial and thermal solar-panel inspections across metro Phoenix and Arizona — commercial and utility array scans, rooftop system checks, and pre- and post-install verification for solar companies and facility owners. We fly radiometric thermal sensors to find hot spots, dead cells, and offline strings, and deliver an annotated report that pinpoints exactly which panels need attention.
A thermal drone flies an entire array — rooftop or field — and reads each panel's temperature from the air. A faulty cell runs hot; the camera sees it instantly, across thousands of modules, in a single pass.
A report that tells your O&M crew exactly which panels to service — not a vague 'something's underperforming.'
Our Phoenix-metro solar work is commercial-led — the kind of large carport and rooftop arrays where an aerial thermal scan saves a crew days of ground inspection.
For a solar EPC we flew a large City of Mesa municipal solar-carport installation — sweeping canopy arrays over a fleet lot, captured in high resolution for array documentation and condition assessment.
COMMERCIAL · CARPORT
The same Mesa shoot captured panel-level detail across the canopies — the resolution needed to spot damage, soiling, and layout issues that a thermal pass then confirms electrically.
HIGH-RES · CONDITION
We fly as the aerial-inspection partner for Arizona solar companies — from a Phoenix-area rooftop system pre-install survey to commercial array checks — giving EPC and O&M teams thermal coverage without owning the drone program.
B2B · EPC PARTNERStraight talk: our largest solar-inspection track record is across southern Arizona, where we've inspected dozens of residential and commercial systems. In the Phoenix metro our proven work is commercial and B2B — municipal carport arrays and solar-company partnerships — and that's exactly where an aerial thermal scan pays for itself fastest.
Most arrays are a single flight and a next-day report — here's the path.
Rooftop, carport, or ground-mount, and its size and location. We scope the flight and the best thermal window.
Radiometric sensor over the full array under load, LAANC pulled ahead of time, matched visible-light frames captured alongside.
We build the thermal orthomosaic, locate every anomaly, and map faults to specific modules and strings.
You get the located, module-level report within 48 hours — ready to dispatch a service crew.
The Valley's sun is what makes solar worth it — and what makes an unnoticed fault expensive.
Phoenix arrays produce hard nearly every day, so a dead string or hot panel loses real money continuously. Catching it fast is the whole return on an inspection.
Extreme ambient heat accelerates cell degradation and makes hot-spot faults both more common and more damaging — exactly what a radiometric scan is built to find.
Valley dust and monsoon grime cut output in patterns a thermal and high-res pass can document, so cleaning and service go where they're actually needed.
Commercial arrays across the Valley sit under Sky Harbor, Gateway, and Deer Valley airspace. We pull the LAANC authorization before every flight.
On a Valley job, the difference between a licensed pro and a hobbyist is legal, insurable, and visible in the deliverables.
Solar clients often bundle these — same Part 107 team, same day when it makes sense.
Hot spots, dead and cracked cells, bypass-diode failures, and entirely offline strings — anything running hotter than its neighbors — plus physical damage and soiling in the matched visible imagery.
Both, plus solar carports. Rooftop residential and commercial systems, ground-mount fields, and canopy arrays are all flown the same way from the air.
Yes — we're the aerial-inspection arm for several Arizona solar EPC and O&M teams who need thermal coverage without running their own drone program.
No — the opposite. We fly the array under normal production load, because that's when a faulty panel runs hot and shows up on thermal.
Yes. Faults are located to the specific module or string in an annotated report, so your service crew goes straight to the problem.
FAA Part 107 certified and fully insured, with a certificate of insurance on request and LAANC authorization for controlled Valley 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 array — rooftop, carport, or field — and we'll get you a quote and a flight date.
