More than 1,000 rooftops surveyed since 2019 for a solar installer
Since 2019 we have surveyed more than 1,000 rooftops by drone for Systeko in Martinique, French Guiana and Guadeloupe; in 2025 we modelled 162, then another 60 of its plants in 3D for shading studies, and in June 2026 we carried out thermal surveys on 34 of them.
Background
Systeko installs and maintains rooftop photovoltaic plants in Martinique, Guadeloupe and French Guiana, on houses, warehouses, shops, churches and apartment blocks. Before each project, its design office needs the exact dimensions of the roof, its pitches and its obstacles to draw the panel layout; once the plants are running, the operations team needs to know what shades them and to find the modules that overheat. Requests run into the hundreds in some years, more than 300 in both 2020 and 2021, and many of the roofs belong to occupied homes: 61 of the 162 plants studied in 2025 sit on houses. Every flight requires a flight request and an appointment with the occupant, who is notified by the installer.
What we did
Orders come in batches of 1 to 20 buildings and are tracked in a spreadsheet shared with the installer. For each roof we deliver an orthophoto at centimetre definition, a dimensioned drawing (lengths, pitches, area of each roof plane), oblique and close-up views of the roofing and a 3D model. Our drones have used differential GPS correction since August 2020, and the deliverables have been referenced to the local coordinate system since June 2025. In 2025 the installer asked us to study shading on its operating plants: 162 plants surveyed from 12 May and delivered on 19 June, then another 60 delivered on 19 July, each with a 3D model in 3DS format covering a 100 m radius, compatible with its simulation software, and four oblique photos showing where the shade comes from. From 10 to 23 June 2026 we carried out thermal surveys on 34 rooftop plants, 32 in Martinique and 2 in French Guiana, with two deliverables per site: one for the installer, one for its analysis platform. Sixteen of them had been surveyed by us before installation, between 2020 and 2023. In March 2026, for a repowering study at Madiana, we delivered within five days a high-resolution 3D model viewable online, on which the installer measures the rail spacing itself. Image work completes the picture: job videos and a virtual tour of its offices in 2021, aerial footage for a television commercial broadcast in 2022.
9 related missions in the log
Twenty buildings surveyed, including fourteen housing estates owned by one landlord
Order of 23 July 2026: fourteen housing estates in Fort-de-France, Le Lamentin, Ducos and the south of Martinique, and six other buildings, three in Martinique and three in French Guiana, surveyed for rooftop solar projects; files delivered in August and September.
- 20 buildings
34 rooftop solar plants thermally surveyed in two weeks
From 10 to 23 June 2026, 32 plants in Martinique and 2 in French Guiana, in rounds of no more than four neighbouring sites: overview photos and thermal images for the installer, acquisitions for its analysis platform; mission closed on 24 June.
- 34 plants
3D survey of a commercial roof at Madiana for a repowering study
Two plants on the same roof: a high-resolution 3D model viewable online to measure rail spacing, a lightweight 3DS model including the nearby vegetation for the shading study, then an orthophoto; ordered on 27 March, results delivered from 1 to 3 April 2026.
Shading surveys of two roofs in Ducos
On 3 October 2025, including the building that houses the installer’s offices: oblique flight plan at 80 m above ground with terrain following and 75% overlap, a 3D model and four photos per site, delivered on 7 October.
Nineteen buildings surveyed in French Guiana, including ten housing estates in Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni
Order of 22 July 2025: eighteen housing estates and one other building, in Cayenne, Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni, Rémire-Montjoly and Matoury, surveyed for rooftop solar projects; files delivered in August.
- 19 buildings
60 more rooftop plants modelled in 3D for shading studies
Second order, flown from 24 June to 18 July 2025 and delivered on 19 July: a 3D model and four oblique photos per plant, as for the first 162; French Guiana was finished by 7 July.
- 60 plants
Other projects
Eleven solar plants in 2026: 33,333 panels checked one by one
June to September 2026: eleven plants surveyed by thermography for Genergies in Martinique, Guadeloupe and French Guiana: 33,333 panels checked one by one.
Martinique coastline: three precision surveys, from 1.78 to 3.72 cm
At Pointe des Sables in Le Vauclin and in Saint-Pierre for DEAL Martinique, at the mouth of the Prêcheur river for BRGM during the lahar crisis: three orthophotos whose accuracy was measured on independent targets, delivered between one and five days after the flights.
Jarry-Houëlbourg: 327 hectares of wetland in a 2.36 cm orthophoto
For the Conservatoire du littoral, the orthophoto and surface model of the Jarry-Houëlbourg wetland and its edge with the business district: 15,445 images taken over one weekend in February 2026, 3.64 cm root-mean-square error on six check points.
Tell us about your project
Location, area or structure, expected deliverables and timing: with these details we can propose a method and a quote.
97310 Kourou
French Guiana
Route des Trois-Îlets
97229 Les Trois-Îlets
Martinique
20030-041 Rio de Janeiro – RJ
Brazil