{"id":65258,"date":"2024-04-16T14:14:33","date_gmt":"2024-04-16T14:14:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bowman.com\/?post_type=news&p=65258"},"modified":"2025-08-13T21:07:36","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T21:07:36","slug":"the-importance-of-accurate-survey-data-in-solar-development","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/bowman.com\/news\/the-importance-of-accurate-survey-data-in-solar-development","title":{"rendered":"The Importance of Accurate Survey Data in Solar Development"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By\u00a0Brian Garrett, principal and director of survey at Bowman\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The solar industry is innovating and moving fast. It\u2019s also young and still acquiring best practices. Today\u2019s renewables developers sometimes rush through the crucial early surveying stage that developers in older industries, such as utilities and construction, have learned not to overlook. Getting the lay of the land sets the planning for all that comes next, including whether a project will proceed. If done properly and early, it can avoid broken schedules and budgets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are a few nightmare scenarios:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– A rushed survey failed to gauge the elevation of the property by 6 ft, and now your site is underwater due to a flood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– You expected an elevation of 100 ft, but it\u2019s actually 101 ft. Sounds like a negligible difference, but it isn\u2019t. This is what\u2019s known as a \u201cgrade bust,\u201d and it\u2019s as bad as it sounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– You arrive at your site to find someone logging trees. But your indignation quickly turns to sheepishness when you learn that the person is actually on their own property. Your survey was off by dozens of acres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– The site you thought was one size turns out to be three-times as large \u2014 and 800 ft in the wrong direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dangers implied by these revelations are obvious: multimillion-dollar lawsuits, angry customers, missed deadlines, blown-up budgets and even neighboring property owners dictating terms that push your project into the red. It also hurts the industry\u2019s reputation, especially if mistakes lead to negative headlines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the lack of survey work leads to unpleasant surprises, the costs can be as many as two to three times more expensive. This shouldn\u2019t come as a surprise. If you build a deck on your house incorrectly, you have to tear it down and rebuild it. With commercial-level projects, there also will likely be an investigation involved, which adds yet more costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How does this happen?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, very easily. New technology has been the lifeblood of the industry. But it can also be a curse. We\u2019re awash with new aerial photography, lidar and mapping tools. It can give the impression that all you have to do is put a drone in the air, click some buttons and create a surface that\u2019s a faithful representation of the real thing. Equipment is available so anyone can operate and get a result. It doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s the right result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Geographic information systems (GIS) tools are widely misunderstood. GIS data, publicly and readily available, makes for an enticingly low-cost solution for a real-world development project. But GIS is absolutely not meant for this purpose. The giant disclaimers saying as much on these sites aren\u2019t wrong. Buying lidar mapping data may seem like the more responsible path. But even there, the quality of the data may be low: it\u2019s intended for general use, not for designing projects. Aerial data doesn\u2019t take long to become outdated, as anyone familiar with Google Earth can tell you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Veterans of other industries know the trick is to get in early and give surveying the time it needs to be done right. New technology is only as good as the initial survey control data you put into it. Use whatever it takes to achieve the precision you need \u2014 conventional survey technology, remote sensing, drones, aerial survey, 3D laser scanning or terrestrial surveys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This includes getting in there personally with boots on the ground. Even with the best of tools, the data needs to be \u201cground-truthed,\u201d or physically verified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A robust QA\/QC process prevents bad surprises later. Whatever data you start with, confirm it and confirm it again by getting out there and looking. If your surveyors aren\u2019t doing that, they\u2019re not doing it right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDoing it right\u201d doesn\u2019t mean following best practices for their own sake. It\u2019s about not having the project blow up late in the game for easily avoided reasons. As the experienced like to say: There\u2019s never enough money to do it right the first time. And yet there\u2019s always money to do it right the third time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article first appeared in Solar Power World<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":65260,"template":"","news_tags":[148,293],"class_list":["post-65258","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news_tags-solar","news_tags-survey"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Importance of Accurate Survey Data in Solar Development - Bowman<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/bowman.com\/news\/the-importance-of-accurate-survey-data-in-solar-development\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Importance of Accurate Survey Data in Solar Development - Bowman\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By\u00a0Brian Garrett, principal and director of survey at Bowman\u00a0 The solar industry is innovating and moving fast. 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