Solar PV inspection: frequently asked questions

It is an infrared survey of the plant flown by unmanned aircraft while the plant is generating. Faulty cells, modules, diodes, strings and connections run at a different temperature from healthy ones, and those patterns are captured, classified and tied to individual modules on your plant layout. The result is a ranked list of physical faults, each with an estimated yield loss.

No. The inspection needs the plant to be producing, because faults show up under load. Your generation is not interrupted and your site team does not need to isolate anything.

Ground-mounted solar farms (fixed-tilt and tracker), commercial and industrial rooftops, and floating solar on reservoirs and ponds. Plant sizes range from a few hundred kilowatts to several hundred megawatts.

Nationwide, across Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak. We also take on projects elsewhere in Southeast Asia on request. Contact us with the site location and we will confirm.

Access to the PVSCAN client portal with every finding located on your plant layout and filterable by type and severity, a written report, and a repair list your O&M team can take to the field. Each anomaly carries a classification in line with IEC TS 62446-3 practice and an estimated yield loss. We walk your engineers through the results.

We prefer to discuss your plant first, because the useful parts of a report depend on the plant type, the reason for the inspection and who will read it. Contact us and we will explain what the deliverables look like for your case and, where appropriate, show anonymised examples during the discussion.

It depends on plant size, type, location and the deliverables you need, so we quote per project rather than publishing a rate. Send us the plant location, type and approximate capacity and you will have a quotation quickly. For most plants the cost is a small fraction of the yield recovered from the first repair round.

Field work on a typical plant takes from part of a day to a few days depending on size and weather. Analysis and reporting follow. We give you a firm timeline in the quotation, and we can prioritise urgent cases such as insurance claims or acquisition deadlines.

Once a year is the common baseline for operating plants, often timed before the annual performance review or before a warranty milestone. Plants with known issues, high soiling or a history of connector faults benefit from twice a year. Inspections are also worthwhile at commissioning, before the end of the defects liability period and after major weather events.

Hotspot cells and sub-strings, failed bypass diodes, modules and whole strings that are offline, overheating junction boxes and connectors, potential-induced degradation (PID) patterns, cracked or delaminated modules, soiling and shading patterns, and on trackers, rows stuck out of position.

It shows electrical and thermal behaviour under load, not everything. It does not replace I-V curve tracing, electroluminescence imaging or insulation testing where those are needed. Where a finding warrants it, we recommend the follow-up test rather than guessing.

Yes. PVSCAN Engineering does not sell modules, inverters, cleaning or repair services. Our only product is an accurate picture of your plant, so we have no reason to inflate or minimise findings.

We do. Operations are conducted in line with Malaysian civil aviation requirements, and we coordinate with your site safety team on timing and exclusion zones.

Yes. Results are shared only with the users you authorise in the client portal, and we do not publish plant names, locations or results without written permission.

Yes, and we recommend it. Repeat inspections use the same module identities, so the portal shows which findings were resolved, which remain and which are new.

Solar PV inspection is our core service. We also carry out telco tower surveys (panoramas at proposed antenna heights and line-of-sight checks), scheduled progress reports for construction and highway projects, and aerial mapping of land, quarries and plantations. See the services page for each.

Yes. Both ends are surveyed at the proposed coordinates and design heights before any tower is built, so a microwave link can be confirmed or a height adjusted before steel is ordered. We also check existing-to-existing and existing-to-proposed links, and can sweep heights to find the minimum that clears.

WhatsApp or email us with the plant or site location, the type of work and the approximate size, and the reason for the survey if there is one. We will come back with questions if needed, then a scope and quotation.