White Papers and Reports

This inaugural report looks at how solar developers, builders, owners, and operators use and perceive technology & robotics on solar farms. It answers the questions: What technology & robotics are people using? What value are they getting? Does this value differ if you're an owner or an operator? As well as how the solar industry is projected to respond to several macroeconomic factors reshaping the industry today.

Raptor Maps studies the performance and risk profiles of solar assets around the world in order to distill industry trends and to highlight opportunities for the rapidly growing solar industry. This report is a summary of Raptor Maps’ research. The 2025 Global Solar Report draws upon 193 GWdc of utility-scale and commercial and industrial (C&I) solar PV analysis, with 67 GWdc of analysis in 2024 alone. In this report, you will find research into site work automation and resource deployment, anomaly and defect trends, and performance benchmarks across different markets and asset classes.

Drawing from learnings and data from over 3GW of installed autonomous docked drone capacity, this eBook provides a comprehensive summary of top use cases of autonomous drones, case studies with ROI, and the checklist for successful integration and operationalization.

Using drones to collect imagery data has gained widespread traction as an efficient, scalable, and safe method of collecting data, and in-house drone teams improve mobilization flexibility, better equip technicians, and reduce costs.

With the rapid growth in the deployment of solar, the industry has continued to see a rise in underperformance. Raptor Maps' analysis of more than 125GW has shown that equipment fault-related underperformance has increased by almost 180% since 2019, resulting in up to $4.6 billion of potential annual revenue loss for the industry in 2023. Our report details trends and drivers of such underperformance, derived from our industry-leading dataset. The 2025 Global Solar Report will be released in Feb. 2025, stay tuned!

Equipment-driven underperformance has resulted in losses of $82M for the 24.5GW analyzed in 2022 – scaled up to the entire solar industry, that translates to $2.5B in losses annually. Download the report below to learn more about the main equipment-related drivers of asset underperformance, benchmarks for power production loss by site size, and more – derived from our 80GW+ dataset of PV systems.

Quantitative Insights from the Industry Experts The Solar Risk Assessment Report is a clear, thorough, and data-driven analysis of the risks involved in the solar industry. The report is compiled of articles from industry experts in their respective fields, each with in-depth data on a specific element of solar PV production risk.

California is the largest solar market in the United States in installed capacity and number of solar projects, with 15,967 megawatts of utility-scale installations at the beginning of 2023. California also leads the nation in lost revenue from asset underperformance, with an estimated $90.5 in revenue anticipated to be lost by the state’s utility-scale solar installations through the end of 2023.

Equipment, Steps & Practices for Manned Aircraft PV Inspections Step-by-step info for collecting reliable solar site performance data with airplanes and helicopters. Great for solar asset owners and managers, O&M, engineers, EPCs, energy financiers as well as pilots and aviation companies seeking new revenue sources.

Ensuring You Receive the Best Data  The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is an international organization that creates and publishes international standards for all electrical, electronic, and related technologies.

A thorough analysis of the two leading solar inspection methods. This white paper compares the two leading solar PV system inspection methods, I-V Curve Tracing, and Aerial Thermography.

Raptor Maps, the global leader in solar lifecycle management software, released its annual report on factors affecting production in PV systems. The company leveraged a subset of its data repository of PV system “digital twins” to query 22 GW across 27 countries and 6 continents to help PV system owners and operators benchmark and improve their portfolios.

Aerial thermography has become a standard practice for PV inspection in the solar industry and is increasingly getting scoped into requests for proposals (RFPs). To enable the solar industry to scale, Raptor Maps provides aerial thermography contract language in a downloadable format.

Aerial thermography has become a standard practice for PV inspection in the solar industry and is increasingly getting scoped into requests for proposals (RFPs). To enable the solar industry to scale, Raptor Maps provides aerial thermography contract language in a downloadable format.