About this Case Study
Building a utility-scale solar farm is a massive orchestration of efforts across multiple parties. Projects can span hundreds of acres, involve dozens of subcontractors, and depend on precise sequencing of civil, mechanical, and electrical work to stay on schedule. Construction managers must balance safety, quality, and progress while responding to unpredictable variables — weather, equipment delays, and labor availability. These realities make accurate, timely site data essential. Having reliable visibility into what’s happening on the ground can be the difference between staying on track or falling behind.
In this case study, we will show how technology and robotic automation is helping Mill Creek Renewables, one of the country’s leading EPC providers, to obtain that timely data and work more efficiently. This data ultimately helped Mill Creek Renewables spend 80% less time inspecting their site, enabling them to spend more time fixing issues as opposed to finding them.
What challenges was Mill Creek Renewables facing?
At a >100 MW site in Texas, Mill Creek Renewables (MCR) was managing a build on over 780 acres of land on a tight commissioning deadline with just three technicians.
Throughout the build, numerous environmental, electrical, and mechanical issues were popping up, threatening to delay delivery of a fully commissioned site. At that time of year in Texas, it was also extremely hot, limiting by law the amount of contiguous time workers could be in the field.
“For a site this size, we were operating with a skeleton crew.”
Preston Brooms, MCR construction manager appraising the site’s circumstances
To keep the project on track, the MCR team needed a way to identify and resolve these issues more quickly, while keeping field crews safe during periods of extreme heat, and focused on the remediation work itself.
This led the MCR team to implement Raptor Maps’ Sentry solution. Sentry is a permanently docked autonomous drone, which was used by MCR to increase the velocity of site inspections during the construction and capacity testing process. The data from Sentry was stored in a precise digital twin of the site, and enabled the site team to spend their time remediating issues as they arose, as opposed to spending time finding them. The result was a faster and more coordinated commissioning process that helped MCR stay on schedule and enhance operational visibility across the entire site.
The following sections highlight the specific ways MCR used Sentry to improve efficiency, safety, and overall project execution.
Improving Workflow Efficiency through Smarter Tools
One of the biggest advantages MCR found in using Raptor Maps was its intuitive software tooling. Each day, the MCR team would use the Raptor Maps Mobile App to geolocate the issues that had been identified by Sentry in a Digital Twin of the site.
According to Preston Brooms, the construction manager on site, using Raptor Maps produced “very clear, actionable reports” noting that Raptor Maps “was the most user-friendly software I’ve seen to date.”
"Raptor’s mobile app and digital twin produced very clear, actionable reports for us. This was the most user friendly software I’ve seen to date.”
That usability translated directly into faster adoption with his crew on site. It was simple for his team to review detailed RGB and thermal imagery, pinpoint anomalies, and integrate that data directly into their punch list workflow. This integration helped ensure that data from the autonomous drones translated quickly into actionable field tasks, improving coordination among teams.
Remediating Issues Faster with more Rapid Insights
Before using Sentry, diagnosing issues across a site was a highly manual process. Finding downed strings, for example, according to Preston, “could take our team a full day to chase a single block.” Across a 780 acre site with multiple blocks, this work could take weeks.
Sentry changed this calculus. Leveraging routine, autonomously flown inspections on a block-by-block basis, the MCR team outsourced this work to Raptor Maps. This helped speed up this process drastically, as blocks could be inspected and remediated in rapid succession. “For the string work, this turned into an hour-long process,” noted Preston.
“Finding downed strings could take our team a full day to chase a single block. Flying block by block and being able to focus our remediation work made us way more efficient.”
Beyond strings, the MCR team also leveraged Sentry to identify other anomalies on the site, especially trackers that were misaligned and wiring that had poor connections. By incorporating drone-based inspections and automated analysis, MCR was able to reduce diagnostic time on each block.
This efficiency allowed crews to spend their time on remediation as opposed to inspection. And with clear, geolocated data available in their digital twin, engineers and field technicians could coordinate more effectively, minimizing back-and-forth communication and unnecessary field travel.
Supporting Safety and Productivity
Sentry also helped MCR improve worker safety and productivity during periods of high heat. At temperatures above 100°F, Texas heat illness prevention plans require that construction team members take frequent breaks.
“You’re taking a 15-minute break for every 15 minutes of work at 100 degrees. Being able to fly the drone during periods where it would be unsafe for our workers in the field reduces timeline risk for us.”
By shifting initial diagnostic work to remote triage with Sentry, MCR was able to make better use of their on-site hours and limit unnecessary exposure. This ability to inspect from a distance supported both safety and schedule reliability, allowing MCR to maintain project progress even when environmental conditions made fieldwork difficult.
Looking Ahead
For Mill Creek Renewables, deploying Raptor Maps’ Sentry solution represented a meaningful step forward in how they are considering using robotics and automation in managing large-scale solar project builds and execution. Across the site, Sentry enabled the team to identify and address problems earlier, allocate their field crews more efficiently, and meet construction milestones despite a lean workforce and extreme environmental conditions.
By integrating high-frequency drone inspections with a digital twin of the site, MCR was able to replace hours of manual searching with rapid, automated insights—turning diagnostics into a one-hour task instead of a full-day effort. The improved visibility also strengthened coordination across teams, ensuring that each day’s work was more focused, efficient, and productive. And perhaps most importantly, it allowed MCR to uphold high safety standards, protecting workers from unnecessary exposure to extreme heat while keeping project timelines intact.
“Raptor Maps has given us a new level of visibility into how our sites perform during construction.” said Justin Shalko, Director of QA/QC and Cx at Mill Creek Renewables. “With Sentry, we can pinpoint issues faster, keep our crews focused on the highest-value work, and maintain safety in conditions that would normally slow us down. We’re excited to build on what we achieved at this site and continue expanding our use of Sentry across future projects.”
Next steps
From the civil engineering on your site down to the wiring on the back of your panels, the Raptor Solar platform provides you detailed, up-to-date data on the conditions and performance of your solar fleet so that your team has the intel they need to do their jobs effectively, quickly, and safely.
