EnBW, one of Germany’s largest energy companies, will reveal how it’s using autonomous dock-based drones for solar PV inspections in a free webinar this Thursday.

The session, hosted jointly with drone autonomy platform FlytBase, runs January 29 at 3:00 PM CET (8:00 AM CT).

  • What: Case study webinar on dock-based autonomous drone inspections for solar assets
  • When: Thursday, January 29, 2026 at 3:00 PM CET / 8:00 AM CT
  • Where: Online (free registration)
  • Hosts: EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG and FlytBase

EnBW tackles the solar inspection scaling problem

Solar PV inspections look simple on paper. In practice, they’re low-frequency but high-stakes operations that don’t scale easily inside large energy organizations. EnBW will explain why dock-based autonomous drones entered the conversation despite running only a handful of inspections per year.

The webinar promises a candid look at real deployment challenges rather than a polished sales pitch. EnBW plans to cover mistakes made, wrong assumptions, and lessons learned along the way.

Topics covered in the webinar

  • What problem EnBW is solving with solar PV inspections
  • Why autonomy was explored even with infrequent flight cycles – How a dock-based setup operates in practice today
  • Enterprise constraints around usability, data, and integration – Mistakes and lessons learned during deployment

Who should attend

The webinar targets energy and utility operators, solar and renewable asset owners, enterprise drone program leaders, and infrastructure inspection teams. If you’re evaluating drone-in-a-box solutions for energy assets, this is a chance to hear from an operator actually running the technology.

FlytBase provides the drone autonomy software that powers EnBW’s operations. The San Jose-based company works with system integrators and enterprises globally, supporting hardware from DJI, Hextronics, and Heisha docking stations.

Registration is free through FlytBase’s website.

DroneXL’s Take

Dock-based drone programs at energy utilities are still rare enough that any real-world case study is worth attention. Most vendor webinars stick to best-case scenarios. EnBW explicitly promising to discuss “mistakes and wrong assumptions” suggests this will be more useful than the typical marketing session.

The interesting question is whether low-frequency inspections can justify the infrastructure cost of a permanent dock installation. That’s the math every utility drone program manager is running right now.

Editorial Note: AI tools were used to assist with research and archive retrieval for this article. All reporting, analysis, and editorial perspectives are by Haye Kesteloo.