What changed when a Norwegian power plant replaced 450,000 euros of boiler scaffolding with a drone

October 1, 2026 · 3 min read

Returkraft's waste to energy plant used to put 10 to 15 scaffolders inside its boiler for a collective 1,700 hours, then 300 hours of ultrasonic thickness readings. One or two pilots now fly an Elios 3 with a thickness probe and capture the data from the ground. The vendor publishes 150 measurements in 2.5 flight hours and 48 hours less outage.

The short answer

A plant that burns 140,000 tons of waste a year and produces 11 megawatts of electricity and 33 of heat replaced a scaffold based boiler inspection with drone flights carrying an ultrasonic thickness payload. The vendor states scaffolding and inspection would have cost 450,000 euros under the traditional method, and that the entire drone process took 8 hours against 300 hours of manual thickness measurement. The account below is the maker's own case story, so read every number as the vendor published it, not as an audited result.

What the job looked like before

Inspecting the boiler internals for corrosion, pitting and tube wall thinning meant a team of 10 to 15 scaffolders spending a collective 1,700 hours inside the boiler, followed by 300 more hours of ultrasonic thickness measurements by inspectors working from the scaffold.

What they put in

A Flyability Elios 3 with an ultrasonic thickness payload, 4K camera and LiDAR, flown by one to two pilots from the ground. Scaffolding is now built afterward, only where repairs are actually needed.

What changed, in their numbers

Scaffolding and inspections alone would have cost 450,000 euros under the traditional method. 10 to 15 scaffolders and a collective 1,700 hours inside the boiler avoided. 300 hours of thickness measurement versus 8 hours for the entire drone process, including flying, battery changes and capturing measurements. Over 150 thickness measurements in 2.5 hours of flight time. Boiler tubes of 44.5 or 57 millimeters. Outage time 48 hours shorter and 7 days of scaffolding work saved. A crew of 1 to 2 pilots. All published by the vendor. Program cost and payback were not published.

What this does not tell you

It does not publish what the aircraft, training and software cost, so the saving cannot be netted against the investment from this account. It does not say how many inspections a year the plant runs, which decides whether owning beats hiring an operator. And a thickness reading from a probe pressed by an aircraft is a measurement an inspector still has to accept under the plant's inspection code.

What to verify before you fly

Your scaffold and access invoices for the last three outages. Whether your inspection code accepts aircraft carried thickness readings. Who would fly and under what approvals, since Steel Collar is never the operator of record and the specifics belong with a qualified specialist. Whether the atmosphere during inspection allows an aircraft at all. And for public money, the aircraft's sourcing and compliance status first.

Sources: https://www.flyability.com/casestudies/drone-boiler-inspections

Describe your boiler and your outage schedule to Amelia, the aerial concierge on this site. It will tell you whether buying or hiring fits, and what the inspection has to be able to accept.

Related on this site

Scaffold went from a precondition of inspection to a consequence of findings: built afterward only where repairs were actually needed. That reordering is the whole saving.

Put it to the test on your own job

Tell Joe what you are running and he will apply this to your numbers, including telling you when a robot is the wrong answer.

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