HIGH-TECH and innovative are words often banded around in the world of business.

But to describe Above Surveying, they are both very apt.

The firm, which is based at Essex University’s Knowledge Gateway, is doing all it can in the fight climate change from the skies above.

Founded in 2015, the company is an aerial inspections and data analytics business.

Above uses drones to report and monitor faults on solar farms across the country and further afield, using thermal imaging camera to observe temperature changes and identify faults.

Will Hitchcock, managing director, said: “We were founded just over three-and-a-half years ago and we’ve been growing ever since. We are now inspecting assets internationally.

“We recently moved to the university’s Knowledge Gateway and we are working with them on a project to develop artificial intelligence solutions for data processing in our field.”

Mr Hitchcock’s obsession with solar energy started long before he created the firm.

A long-time environmentalist, in 2011 he and technology manager Simon Gilhooly set up the Green Energy Nayland, a community interest company which set about bringing solar power to the village’s primary school.

Mr Hitchcock said: “It was the first project of its kind in the UK. I noticed how the school’s roof was south facing and started thinking about how we could add solar panels.

“It progressed and we decided to set up a company which meant parents could invest and in turn get a return on the investment.

“They get 7.2 per cent return on the investment each year.”

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Still going strong, the project went on to inspire other community groups across the country.

Mr Hitchcock said: “When we finished it, we wrote a guide on how to do it and lots of people in the UK have used it to do something similar.

“It is like anything, the first time it is done is difficult. Back then solar really was not as standard as it is today.”

To celebrate the project’s ongoing success, Above Surveying visited the primary school to conduct an assessment of the panels, and speak to students about the future of solar power.

Mr Hitchcock said: “It felt appropriate for us to go back and remind the children of the benefits of solar. The kids we met have only ever known the school with the solar panels as we put them on in 2011.”

Green Energy Nayland produces a healthy return for its investors and a portion of the income from the installation is invested into environmentally focused community educational projects - a big goal for the project when Mr Hitchcock set out.

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Using this cash, headteacher Reagan Delaney has created a competition where students are being asked to design their own schemes which could boost the school’s environment. Two will be chosen to take forward.

Above says Nayland Primary School has really taken to the environmentally conscious ethos inspired by the Green Energy Nayland project.

Earlier in the year, pupils requested the school switched its milk delivery from plastic bottles to glass bottles, saving thousands of plastic bottles from going to waste each year.

The school also has a great recycling system, managed by an eager team of eco students.

Mr Hitchcock said: “It was nice to remind the children about the importance of solar but also it was nice to go back to where my passion for it really came from. The project was the first thing I did in the industry.

“Now, solar development is growing exponentially and I think that will continue because there is so much momentum.”