Texas is the fastest-growing solar market in the country, and a panel that's cracked, dead, or wired wrong is quietly costing its owner money in the DFW 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 Dallas–Fort Worth — 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 the exact panels to service.
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.
A report that tells your crew exactly which panels to service — not a vague 'something's underperforming.'
Solar inspection comes down to catching the faults that quietly cut output — across three kinds of DFW arrays.
Large rooftop and carport arrays scanned in a single thermal pass — every module checked for heat faults in minutes instead of a days-long ground inspection.
COMMERCIAL · THERMAL
Full ground-mount fields flown and stitched into a thermal orthomosaic — dead strings and hot spots located across thousands of modules.
ORTHOMOSAIC · UTILITY
We fly as the aerial-inspection partner for DFW solar EPC and O&M teams — pre-install site surveys through commercial array checks — giving them thermal coverage without a drone program.
B2B · EPC PARTNERFrom rooftop systems to utility fields, an aerial thermal scan pays for itself fastest where the sun is strongest — and DFW's is strong. Every job is flown by licensed pilots on the ground in the metro.
Most arrays are a single flight and a next-day report — here's the path.
Rooftop, carport, or ground-mount, plus its size and location. We scope the flight and the best thermal window.
Radiometric sensor over the full array under load, LAANC pulled ahead, 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 crew.
Texas leads the country in new solar — and the DFW climate is hard on panels.
Texas is adding solar faster than any state, so more DFW rooftops and fields mean more arrays quietly losing output to unnoticed faults.
Extreme heat accelerates cell degradation and hail cracks glass — both show up on a thermal and high-res pass before they gut your production.
DFW's commercial solar and EPC activity is where aerial thermal saves the most labor — a whole array checked in one flight.
Commercial arrays across the metro sit under DFW International, Love Field, or Alliance airspace. We pull LAANC before every flight.
A solar inspection is only actionable if the faults are located to the exact module by a calibrated sensor.
Solar clients often bundle these — same DFW pilots, 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.
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 — most of DFW is controlled airspace. We hold FAA Part 107 certification and pull the LAANC authorization for each flight.
No — the opposite. We fly under normal production load, because that's when a faulty panel runs hot and shows on thermal.
FAA Part 107 certified and fully insured, with a certificate of insurance on request.
Yes — we're the aerial-inspection arm for several Texas solar EPC and O&M teams who need thermal coverage without running their own drone program.
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.
