Will Hitchcock: Solar Surveying & Your Data’s Hidden Power

This week on CleanTalk, Director-Producer Luke Harmer visits Above to speak with Founder & CEO Will Hitchcock. Above provides solar surveying, data and analytics solutions and is helping asset owners in around 25 countries manage construction, maximise their asset lifespans, increase yield and reduce maintenance costs with their drone hardware and software technology.

In this episode you'll hear a story about how passions for sustainability, efficiency, aeronautics, technology and climate converged at just the right time in Will's life to make a valuable contribution to the solar power generation industry. We explore the challenges the industry faces in adopting greater diligence and agency in the use of data, the establishment of digital twins, the challenges of co-operating with upstream contributors in the solar supply chain, how the solar supply chain differs from other renewables' supply chains, and how Above plans to bring Europe's knowledge and experience in solar power generation to the USA in the future.

Enjoy!

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Connect with Will on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/willhitchcockuk/

Learn more about Above's solar plant data and analytics solutions: https://www.abovesurveying.com/

Book your ticket to RE+, North America's largest clean energy event: https://www.re-plus.com/attend/

Join the CleanTalk community on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12991627/

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CleanTalk is produced by Harmer Visuals, a corporate film production company specialising in data-driven storytelling for organisations across the renewable energy and clean technology world. To find out more about how we can help you, visit: https://www.harmervisuals.com/

Many thanks to...

• Above for providing space for the recording session

Equipment rental suppliers:

- Lighting Dept. & Media Storage - O'RIORDAN: https://oriordan.io/

- Camera Dept. - Sunipa Pictures: https://www.sunipapictures.com/ | Shutter Films: https://www.shutterfilms.co.uk/ | Action Elements: https://www.actionelements.co.uk

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Chapters for today's episode:

00:00-02:26 Intro

02:26-06:46 Growing up

06:46-09:10 Early career - IT, tech & Dot-com era

09:10-14:12 Starting a family & Green Energy Nayland

14:12-18:47 Project management & leadership

18:47-19:35 Above's vision, mission & values

19:35-21:59 A convergence of interests - drones & thermography

21:59-27:23 Solar digital twins

27:23-32:59 How Above delivers over an asset's lifespan

32:59-34:16 Risk mitigation as a central selling point

34:16-37:49 The value of capturing module metadata

37:49-38:41 Solar VS Wind - Supply chain differences

38:41-42:17 Why capturing data early saves cost later

42:17-42:57 Staying ahead of the tech curve

42:57-44:02 Market nuances across the globe

44:02-46:57 Autonomous Drone-In-A-Box

46:57-49:02 On-demand Digital Construction Management

49:02-52:43 Building a liability trail for defect resolution

52:43-53:30 Upstream supply chain challenges

53:30-58:11 Above's global coverage & US market entry

58:11-1:00:25 Residential-scale VS utility-scale - building energy democracy

1:00:25-1:01:57 The road to abundance

1:01:57-1:05:36 Agri-PV & the food industry

1:05:36-1:09:24 Quickfire Curiosity

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