Renewable energy
with the details that matter.
PV arrays, BESS sites, wind support buildings, and EV charging infrastructure. We pair the capture method to the way your team will use the result.
What needs to be
measured first?
Solar, storage, and EV charging projects are site problems first: topography, grading, drainage, and access before anything is built, then as-built verification once it is. Aerial mapping handles the ground and array geometry, while terrestrial scanning covers inverter rooms, BESS enclosures, and interconnection equipment.
Every facility has a different risk surface. We start with access, geometry density, and the decision the capture needs to unlock — then choose between laser scanning, drone mapping, or both.
Talk through a scope- PV arrays
- BESS enclosures
- Inverter pads
- Wind support buildings
- EV charging sites
- Site topography
Capturing solar, storage, and charging sites
Renewable projects are civil problems before they are electrical ones, and the capture follows the construction sequence rather than the finished product. The most valuable data is usually collected at moments that only exist for a week or two.
Ground before anything is built
Existing topography, drainage paths, wetland and tree lines, access roads, and the point of interconnection, captured aerially against surveyed ground control. Grading quantities and row layout are both decided from this surface, and it stops existing once earthwork begins.
Piles and foundations as installed
Pile position, plumb, and reveal height across the array, captured after driving and before racking goes on. This is the shortest window on the whole project and the one where an as-built matters most, because racking tolerance is unforgiving of accumulated pile error.
Racking, tables, and tracker rows
Torque tube alignment, row spacing, table heights, and the ground clearance under the array. On tracker projects the geometry changes through the day, so the stow position at the time of capture belongs in the record like a fill level does on a tank.
Electrical equipment and enclosures
Inverter skids, combiner boxes, transformer and MV equipment pads, e-houses, and BESS enclosures with the spacing between them. Enclosure separation and access lanes are governed by fire and code requirements, so as-built spacing is worth verifying rather than assuming.
Rooftop and charging installations
On roof-mounted arrays: deck structure, existing penetrations, parapet heights, drainage, and equipment already up there. On charging sites: pad geometry, conduit stub-ups, canopy structure, bollards, and accessible stall dimensions and slopes.
Weather, energized arrays, and airspace
Field conditions govern more of this work than site rules do. Aerial mapping of an array wants consistent light and low wind, and a site that is muddy, frozen, or mid-earthwork gives a surface that will not match next month. Vegetation growth between rows changes what an aerial capture can see of the ground, which is why the timing of a topographic flight matters as much as its specification.
Once modules are installed, the array is generating whenever the sun is up, so DC-side work carries its own hazards and the site's electrical rules decide where anyone can walk and what may be opened. Airspace authorization is a routine part of planning — many of these sites sit under controlled airspace or near an airfield — and on large arrays the flight plan has to account for battery endurance and line of sight across a site that can be a mile across.
More on how this works in practice is on our guide to scanning without a shutdown.
What gets asked for at each project stage
The deliverable changes completely between development, construction, and operation, and buying the wrong one for the stage is the usual complaint. Early work wants surfaces; construction wants deviation; operations wants a record.
| The decision | What to ask for | Why that one |
|---|---|---|
| Development and grading design | Orthomosaic, surface model, contours, and volumes | Cut and fill, drainage, and row layout are all designed against a current ground surface rather than a public dataset. |
| Pile and foundation as-built | Point cloud plus position and reveal reporting | Racking is installed to a tolerance, and knowing where the piles actually went is what keeps that install on schedule. |
| Equipment pad or e-house work | Point cloud with a modeled equipment area | Conduit routing, clearances, and enclosure fit are coordination problems that need modeled geometry. |
| Commissioning and handover records | As-built site plan plus registered cloud | The operating team inherits a site nobody drew accurately during construction; this is where that gets fixed. |
Formats and what each one is good for are covered on the deliverables page.
What goes wrong on renewable sites
- Module glass is a poor scan target — PV glass is smooth and highly specular, so it reflects the beam away rather than returning it, and the module plane comes back sparse or noisy from a shallow angle. Array geometry is better derived from racking and structure than from the modules themselves, and the capture plan has to be built that way.
- Capturing the as-built too late — Pile and foundation geometry disappears under racking, and racking geometry disappears under modules. Each stage has a window measured in days, and missing it means the useful measurement is gone for the life of the asset.
- Assuming the site was built to the grading plan — Earthwork rarely matches design exactly, and on sloped sites the difference shows up as row-to-row shading or drainage that runs the wrong way. Verifying against the built surface is cheap; discovering it from production data is not.
- Roof arrays planned without the deck — A rooftop array is a structural attachment problem. Where the purlins or joists actually are, what is already penetrating the deck, and how the roof drains all have to be measured before an attachment layout is drawn against an idealized roof plan.
Questions from developers and EPCs
When in the build should we capture?
At least twice, and the two moments are very different. Before earthwork, for the ground surface that grading and layout are designed against. Then after piles or foundations are in and before racking covers them, because that as-built drives whether the racking install goes smoothly. Anything later documents the result rather than informing it.
Can you map a whole array from the air?
Yes, and for site-scale questions — topography, drainage, row layout, access, vegetation extent — that is the right tool. What aerial capture does not give you is the detail inside an inverter skid or an e-house, so most projects end up combining a flight over the array with terrestrial setups at the equipment.
Do you handle BESS enclosure layouts?
The measured geometry, yes: enclosure positions, spacing, access lane widths, pad dimensions, and the equipment around them. Whether that spacing satisfies the separation and fire requirements applying to your project is a determination for your engineer and the authority having jurisdiction, working from the measurements.
Can you scan an existing roof for a solar install?
That is one of the most useful captures on a rooftop project. A flight gives area, slope, drainage, and a penetration inventory without anyone walking the membrane, and terrestrial capture from inside adds the deck structure and existing services that the attachment layout has to work around.
Pair TLS interiors with drone exteriors for one coordinate story.
Roof, yard, tanks, structures, and the building envelope can live in the same project handoff when the control is planned upfront.
See existing conditionsMake the invisible
measurable.
Tell us what is inside, outside, and on the line. We will help you scope the capture and the handoff — in New York, New Jersey, or Connecticut.
Request a scan quote