Introduction

Market Segmentation & Related Demand

• The market for utility drones is segmented by end-use as well as type of drone.

• End use is segmented into inspection of conventional power and renewable power, renewable power which contains wind and solar inspection segments.
• The types of drone segments are either multi-rotor and fixed wing. 
• Multi-rotor is most common, and expected to grow most rapidly due to being quite a bit cheaper than fixed wing drones, as well as being more readily available for use.
• Among regional segmentation, North America is the most prominent, with the US the largest utility drone inspection market.
•  Canada is the next largest market, and Europe is also significant, with Germany the largest country in the region for utility drone inspection use.
• The UK, France, Spain, Italy, and China are also significant markets for utility drone inspection including solar.
• Globally the drones used for utility and solar inspection are expected to see high growth, due to the increase in complex and large systems requiring inspection.
• However, some limitations exist for utility drone inspections due to federal regulations that have not been modernized or adjusted to allow for inspecting solar farms with drones.
• Recently the US Federal Aviation Administration passed a regulation to allow commercial use of drones in the utility sector which is anticipated to increase demand for solar drone inspection providers.
• There are a relatively limited amount of medium to large companies in the space, which you'll find more information about below.

Competitors & Pricing

•  Key players in the utility drones market are Cyberhawk (Scotland), Delair (France), Measure (US), PrecisionHawk (US), and HEMAV (Spain).
• Most of these companies have dominated the market and limited competition via contracts and agreements with large utility and solar companies all over the world.
• For example, when company Delair finished its final testing phases, they authorized distributors and operators in 70 countries.  
• In addition to key players, smaller startups are addressing technological limitations and creating adjacent innovations to improve the inspection capacity of drones.
• For example, SolidEnergy Systems is a startup working to increase the battery capacity of utility inspection drones to allow for longer flights.
• One source estimates drone inspection ranges between $200-$300 per hour, or about $10 acre, which for a solar farm was estimated to equate to $10 to $25/ kW-yr.  
• Drones are estimated to reduce solar inspection costs by approximately $1,254 per MW.

Research Strategy