C-DRONE GUIDE · 30 JULY 2026
Agricultural greenhouse drone inspection: glazing, films, thermography, price
A greenhouse estate is an almost endless roof — hectares of glass or plastic film — sitting on the farm's cash flow: every broken pane is a heating leak, water onto the crop, an entry point for pests. Yet inspecting these covers is a puzzle: you do not walk on a greenhouse, gutters are slow to travel, and after a hailstorm the damage must be quantified fast, everywhere, for the insurer and the repair crews alike. The drone answers exactly this brief: a quick pass over the whole estate, photography of every bay, thermal imaging of heated houses in winter. Here are the uses that matter to a grower, and prices observed in 2026.
Published on 30 July 2026, reviewed on 25 August 2026 — regulations in force as of August 2026.
A huge roof nobody ever sees from above
Greenhouses are so visible from the sky that remote sensing has mapped them for years: a study by Manuel A. Aguilar, Abderrahim Nemmaoui, Antonio Novelli, Fernando J. Aguilar and Andrés García Lorca published in 2016 in Remote Sensing showed greenhouses can be identified and delineated from very-high-resolution satellite imagery with strong reliability (see the study on Google Scholar). The drone goes three orders of magnitude finer: where the satellite counts greenhouses, it counts panes — cracked or shifted glazing, undone film overlaps, open ridge caps, misaligned vents, gutters clogged with moss or debris.
Routine inspection aligns with the useful moments: before winter for heated houses, after tall crops come out, before summer whitewash is applied — whose uniformity the flight also checks, since patchy cover creates scorch or shading zones. On plastic houses, images reveal film tension issues, incipient edge tears and tired fixings that will let go in the next gale.
After hail: quantifying fast, everywhere, for the insurer
The hailstorm is the trade's defining loss event: in minutes, thousands of panes can break, and the farm enters a race — protecting exposed crops, ordering glass, mobilising fitting crews, filing the claim. The post-storm flight, possible as soon as the wind drops, delivers within hours a bay-by-bay breakage count, mapped and dated: the document the insurance adjuster expects, and the one that sizes the material order and the repair job.
The approach is that of our agricultural damage assessment after hail or storm guide, applied to fragile structures nobody must climb — walking a hailed greenhouse is out of the question, and lifts only reach the edges. On the farm's ancillary buildings — sheds, packing stations — the same flight completes the file, following our farm buildings guide.
The heated house in thermal: hunting energy leaks
For heated houses — tomato, cucumber, horticulture — energy is among the top cost items, and the cover its main loss path. A thermal flight on a cold night draws the map of actual heat losses: missing or shifted panes invisible from the ground, thermal screens closing poorly, leaky doors and junctions, zones where the inflated double skin has deflated. Every located anomaly is a targeted repair, with payback often measured in weeks of heating.
The same pass checks the boiler house and its network: buried pipes between boiler and houses, whose leaks show as warm lines on the ground, following the method in our heating network leak detection guide. And to steer irrigation and spot crop stress under cover or in the open field, multispectral sensors take over — see our water stress by thermal and multispectral drone guide. Our thermal imaging drone page presents the service.
Photovoltaic greenhouses and extension projects
The greenhouse sector is evolving: photovoltaic greenhouses, canopies over packing yards, extension projects requiring permits. The drone supports all three: checking PV modules on greenhouse roofs — same methods as for a solar farm, thermography included —, surveying building roofs before equipment following our roof survey before solar panels guide, and an estate orthophoto for planning files and network plans.
On the aviation side, a greenhouse farm is simple terrain: rural area, open-category flight over the farm's own land, briefed staff. The usual vigilance points are aerodrome proximity and immediate neighbours — routine checks on the Géoportail map. Our agriculture drone page presents the full range of farm services.
Prices observed in 2026
Ranges observed in 2026 (excl. VAT):
- Visual inspection of a greenhouse estate (up to 5 covered ha, per-bay report): €500 to €1,000.
- Post-hail flight with breakage count (dated mapping for the insurer): €600 to €1,200 as a rapid response.
- Thermal survey of heated houses (winter night flight, boiler house and network included): €700 to €1,500.
- Annual grower package (autumn inspection + winter thermography): €1,000 to €2,000/year.
Estates over 5 covered hectares are priced case by case. Request a quote stating covered area, cover type (glass, single or double film) and whether houses are heated or cold.
Put it into practice
- Drone aerial thermal imaging: rates and cities covered from €500
- Aerial thermal imaging in Beauvais Hauts-de-France
- Aerial thermal imaging in Chalon-sur-Saône Bourgogne-Franche-Comté
- Aerial thermal imaging in Tarbes Occitanie