The Energy Drone Coalition (powered by InnovateEnergy) and DRONEII.COM have announced the release of their joint report, “Drones in the Energy Industry.” This independent report on power and utility industries finds a market in transition from field trials and POC’s to scaling in the enterprise for UAV operations. It also reveals the initial insights into the critical infrastructure market’s use of drones in their inspection, mapping, and surveying projects.
The joint report, “Drones in the Energy Industry,” is the first industrial UAV report that displays the current pulse of drones in the energy industry and serves as an industry-specific benchmark.
This is the first industrial UAV report that displays the current pulse of drones in the energy industry and serves as an industry-specific benchmark. It enables readers to learn about the what, how, and when of drones in the energy industry. Furthermore, the collected data will be used as a basis for additional research activities to assess the future development of this rapidly growing and significant market.
A representative mix of UAV leaders from the energy and engineering industries were invited to participate in this study. This mix contains energy asset owners using drones, as well as drone-as-a-service providers (DSPs).
“This survey was created in July 2018 and distributed within the Energy Drone Coalition network in the North American region with 214 total surveys completed,” said Sean Guerre, Director. “The survey is planned to be conducted again in 2019 to assess operational changes, market growth and technological developments of commercial drones in the energy industry, and we look forward to having even more respondents share their insights.”
Key areas covered in the Drones in the Energy Industry Report include:
- The Drone Market (time in market, organization UAV setup)
- Operational Setup (in-house, outsource or hybrid)
- Technology Stack (hardware, software, payloads)
- Operations (types of UAV use cases, frequency of flights)
The Drones in the Energy Industry Report reveals the first market-focused highlights:
- Around two-thirds of the energy companies who responded to the survey are currently operating drones.
- 50% of companies have set up drone operations in-house.
- While most energy companies have established a drone department/division, the majority of drone operations in the energy industry for 2018 is in the “Proof of Concept” phase (60% have less than 10 flights per month).
- Multi-copters are the most utilized drone configuration. The energy sector utilizes infrared sensors quite often in comparison to other industry sectors.
- Endurance, range, reliability and flexible utilization are the core developments required by the respondents to grow or scale their drone operations.
- The energy sector is strongly focused on drones for maintenance and inspection applications and is keen to increase research & development efforts for BVLOS operation.
The complimentary report is available for download here.
Filed Under: Drones, News
