China is flying 16 large drones to carry over 100 tons of steel and concrete up steep, roadless mountains to build new mountain solar power station at altitudes up to 1,650m in its southwestern Yunnan Province.These drones, each carrying up to 420 kg and traveling 1.3 km at a time, can finish the task used to take a month in just three days. This method cuts road-building costs by 80%, reduces labor by 60% and boosts efficiency by a factor of 10.Apart from lifting heavy loads, drones in Guangdong are also helping with typhoon disasters. China’s independently-developed unmanned drone, Wing Loong, was used before and after Typhoon Wipha, the nation’s first-ever typhoon early warning monitoring using a large fixed-wing drone. It flew through wind and rain, using its onboard synthetic aperture radar to scan thick cloud and rain barriers and sent live data to emergency teams. After the storm passed, the drone kept flying to support rescue missions, check river levels and find blocked roads.It even acted as a flying mobile tower, restoring network services and sending over 6,000 emergency messages to people in disaster areas.
