How a drone cleaning campaign is organised at a wind farm

The technical part of a drone cleaning campaign is, oddly enough, the easiest bit to plan. What drives the calendar is aviation filing and weather, in that order. Here is the full process, with the real lead times.

1. Three data points and a quote

Fixing a price takes three things: number of turbines in the campaign, site location and rotor diameter of the machines. That is enough to set scope and price per unit. If you do not have the diameter to hand, the model or rated power does the job.

Minimum order is 4 turbines per campaign. That is not an arbitrary commercial policy: below that figure, moving the crew and setting up on site does not stack up against billable work.

2. Aviation filing sets the timeline

Once the order is confirmed, the part that fills the calendar begins: authorisation to operate the drone at the specific site. It is filed with the Spanish aviation authority and depends on where the wind farm sits, because a site with no aviation constraints is not the same as one near an aerodrome or inside a restricted area.

The working figure is around 3 weeks of activation from confirmed order. At sites with no aviation constraints it can be considerably shorter. Eolinet handles this filing: the site submits nothing.

It is the point where campaigns slip most when handled by someone who has not done it before, and the reason to request a quote with some margin rather than once the outage window is already fixed.

3. Coordination and documentation

Running in parallel with the aviation filing is contractor coordination: uploading health and safety documentation, insurance and the file for every pilot entering the site to the client's platform.

If the contractor is already prequalified by that company, this step is an update. If not, it can take longer than the aviation filing itself, and that is where quarters get lost.

4. The date is fixed the week before

With permits and documentation resolved, execution is scheduled. But the final date is confirmed the week before, based on the forecast.

Wind is the deciding variable. So is rain, and to a lesser extent temperature, because it affects how the product behaves on the surface. Anyone who has organised rope access at a wind farm knows this conversation: the constraint is the same one, the drone does not introduce it.

Standby and abort-and-return scenarios are set out in the commercial proposal from the start. Better to have them in writing before starting than to discuss them with the machine already down.

5. The day of the intervention

The crew arrives and sets up on the ground: water tank, pressure equipment, compressor and the drone platform with its hose feed. There is no rigging at height because there is nothing to rig at height.

The site provides two things, both of which are yours because they affect how the machine is operated:

• The turbine in maintenance position, with yaw and pitch controlled by the site throughout the intervention.
• Preventive sealing of the nacelle before work starts.

From there, one working day per turbine for the full scope. The entire crew stays on the ground throughout.

6. Handover

Every machine cleaned is handed over with before and after photographic reporting. It is included in the service, not a separate report or an extra you have to ask for, and it is what lets you sign off the work internally and justify the campaign.

Lead times at a glance

If you want a campaign delivered inside this quarter, the time to request a quote is now, not when the outage window opens.