Large scale solar plant operators need to reduce their cost of O&M whilst increasing the generation performance of their existing solar power assets. In addition, developers of new solar plant need to improve their cost of generation to eliminate the need for subsidies. The completion of the innovation project will enable customers to reduce their O&M costs and improve generation performance and help them to reduce their requirement for subsidy. Over 15 globally significant operators have expressed an interest in the product including Solar Reserve, SunEdison, Lightsource and Lark Energy who collectively represent over 6GW of solar in PV and CSP.
The main economic benefit that will make users buy the product is the 1.7% reduction in cost of generation which will directly increase their annual profit. This is more easily communicated to customers as Cleandrone offers clients €750 per MW per year savings on operation and maintenance (O&M). This represents a substantial saving in O&M costs for PV which are typically circa €7,000/MW/y for large scale systems. This saving is expected to be significantly higher for CSP which will be quantified as part of this feasibility. Our analysis indicates that a price point of just under €32,000 offers an attractive product when drone opex is considered. This will also be confirmed as part of the feasibility. Key USPs are expected to be: the versatility to work on any panel configuration, minimum user intervention, combining the inspection and cleaning functions, and no generation down time. Furthermore, the technology will considerably reduce consumption associated with cleaning which is a significant advantage in arid regions where water supply is valuable, whilst maintaining the efficacy associated with wet cleaning.
The solar energy market is primarily comprised of Photovoltaic (PV) and Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) power plant operators. Currently PV accounts for more than 90% of the circa 180GW global solar capacity . The rest is accounted by emerging CSP technology which has been growing at around 35-75% per year during the past decade . Around half of this capacity is located in Europe . The primary market segments which will be targeted by Cleandrone are utility scale PV and CSP solar plants. Utility scale solar plants capacity range from less than 1 MW to 400 MW . Assuming average size of 50 MW for a plant, there will be more than 5000 utility scale solar plants in 2020 (250GW total). This figure represents the global Serviceable Available Market (SAM). Within utility scale solar plants, Cleandrone will be focusing on vertically integrated companies in global PV and CSP plants. Although there are relatively few vertically integrated customers, they capture at least 40% of the global PV and CSP market share. By focusing on such companies, Cleandrone will have cost reduction potential for large portfolio of power stations. This focus on vertically integrated companies limits the serviceable obtainable market (SOM) to more than 2000 power stations (100GW total). Finally, because the economics of robotic cleaning are most compelling in areas with significant dust soiling, we have initially confined our focus market to projects owned by our target customers in arid regions which is slightly less than 1000 power stations (50GW total). This market segmentation exercise generates a global target market in 2020 of €192m potential sales with around half of this being situated in Europe.
Within the companies that operate utility scale plants in arid regions (50MW+), we have defined ‘Tier 1’ customers that make up the biggest proportion of the installed solar capacity which are SunEdison, First Solar, SolarReserve, BrightSource Energy, Canadian Solar and Trina Solar. Based on preliminary research, we have identified our ‘Tier 2’ customers as Abengoa, and Torresol. We will make contact with these organisations and at least 6 others through existing industry contacts through introductions from our board and associates.
Key stakeholders for making a successful commercial exploitation are:
• Solar plant operators – the primary customers for the product
• Aviation regulators in key markets – control the operation of UAVs
• Solar industry trade bodies – useful for marketing, developing the market
• Component suppliers – identification of suitable suppliers for rapid growth
• Potential strategic partners – identification of organisations that could offer complimentary business activities such as logistics or brand trust value.
