From Inspection to Action: Skysys Builds Autonomous Renewable-Energy Maintenance
An early drone-inspection idea developed into a broader approach to keeping renewable-energy assets productive.
The opportunity in assets already built
A solar or wind asset creates value when it generates reliably. Finding faults is useful; helping operators respond to them is the next challenge.
Skysys built its early capability around autonomous drone inspection. By its 2024 Series B, the company was developing a wider approach to renewable-energy operations and maintenance, connecting inspection with action.
An early idea worth backing
CMVC’s relationship with Skysys began at the seed stage. Co-founder and CEO Wang Haibin, who had worked at GE, set out his vision for autonomous drone operations in an early conversation with our team. GE was an LP in the CMVC fund that invested.
The concept addressed a practical constraint: drones needed a dependable way to operate on site, beyond a single manually managed flight. Skysys developed drone stations alongside inspection software and diagnostic capabilities.
Learning from the inspection workflow
As the company accumulated inspection experience, it identified problems that inspection alone could not solve. Dirt and contamination could affect photovoltaic output, while cleaning large or difficult-to-access sites presented its own operational challenges.
That informed development of Lantern, combining drones and cleaning robots for photovoltaic maintenance. The company also developed wind-turbine inspection capabilities. These products represented a move from detecting an issue toward supporting the work needed to address it.
Financing a broader capability
The RMB 100 million Series B announced in June 2024 brought new investors together with earlier backers, including CMVC. The financing was intended to support further product development and production.
For investors, the important progression was the connection between customer experience and product development. An inspection workflow exposed a maintenance need; the team used its existing capabilities to pursue that adjacent problem.
What the journey shows
Supporting renewable energy includes improving the productivity of assets already in operation. The commercial question is whether a system can deliver a dependable service at an attractive cost for the operator.
Skysys’ 2024 account illustrates that opportunity and the evolving scope of its products.