Aerial photo taken on Feb. 16, 2022 shows a photovoltaic power station in Yongren County of Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Yunnan Province. (Xinhua/Chen Xinbo)

"A Photovoltaic (PV) panel is arriving," intercoms got the notice at the construction site of a PV power generation project in southwest China's Yunnan Province. After a while, a drone carrying the PV panel was seen over the construction area.

It is about 300 meters from the foot of the hill where materials are piled up for the PV project, located in Lufeng. The whole transportation process, from binding materials by workers to lifting by drones and unloading, takes less than five minutes.

The crew members quickly unbuckled and removed the panel within 30 seconds. The use of drones greatly facilitated the construction process.

The drones have a maximum lifting weight of 40 kg and a maximum flying distance of 500 meters, said Xu Qibo, a drone operator.

The PV power generation project is located on a steep mountainside with complex terrain, making it hard to conduct mechanical transport.

Previously, the transportation of equipment components and materials relied mainly on humans and horses, said Ma Shaozhen, the project manager from the China Anneng Group. It took about 30 minutes for two workers to move and deliver an 8.5-meter piece of steel to the construction site.

The low efficiency seriously affected the project construction progress.

Many workers of the construction sites acknowledged the convenience brought by drone delivery, such as fast speed, simple operation, safety, and controllability.

The drones are less affected by terrain. Helped by drones, the construction sites effectively solved the problems of poor road conditions, steep slopes, difficult material transportation, high safety risk, and low labor efficiency.

Yunnan Province plans to build 50 million kw of PV and wind power projects in the following three years. Drones are expected to greatly shorten the construction period of PV construction, said Yang Bin, general manager of Huadian (Lufeng) New Energy Development Co., Ltd.