UK Moves Ahead with Drones in Renewable Energy Sector

2009 is a long time ago in drone years – but that’s when Scotland-based Cyberhawk performed their first drone inspection, one year after the company’s start.  Since then, the company says it has captured 25 more of the “world’s firsts” for the drone industry: working with blue-chip energy companies in more than 25 countries on four continents.  Now the world leader in inspection, survey and asset management using drones, Cyberhawk has been awarded a 3-year contract with one of the UK’s largest renewable energy firms.

Cyberhawk will perform wind turbine blade inspections across the company’s network in the UK and Ireland.  Drones are an important tool in the renewable and traditional energy sector, where remote locations on and offshore  – not to mention the basic height of the structures – make traditional methods of inspection both difficult and dangerous.  Previous to closing this latest deal, Cyberhawk inked a global contract with wind turbine manufacturer Siemens Gamesa.  They’ve completed missions on and offshore throughout Europe.

Cyberhawk CEO Chris Fleming said: “We continue to make great inroads in renewable energy as a result of our UAV data collection and asset management software, iHawk. We are experiencing an increase of work in this sector which is highlighted by this recent framework award, and will continue to work closely with renewable energy suppliers around the globe to develop solutions which meet their needs.”

The contract marks the end of Cyberhawk’s most successful year yet.  2017 saw their revenue increase by a third, with increased profitability and the completion of a series of major projects.

“Software remains a major part of Cyberhawk’s business across all sectors, and ongoing development has taken place over the last 12 months to meet increasing needs from clients,” says the company. “Two new modules were launched on iHawk, Cyberhawk’s cloud-based asset management software, specifically for substation asset management and tower bar-by-bar inspections. iHawk will continue to represent a significant part of Cyberhawk’s growth strategy during 2018 and beyond.”

Discussing the highlights of the last 12 months, Chris said: “2017 has been an exciting year for Cyberhawk and we have been extremely encouraged to see the uptake of UAVs for inspection and survey increase exponentially. We believe this is only set to continue and our team is using the success of the last 12 months as a springboard for 2018.

“Cyberhawk will continue to innovate, grow our talented team and develop customer-centric solutions to challenges across a range of industries. We are very excited to see what 2018 will bring.”