Solar Farm CCTV Systems: A Wholesale Sourcing Guide to Panels, Batteries and AOV Recording

Securing an actual photovoltaic plant? Perimeter, inverter-station and DC-field camera layout is covered in Security cameras for solar farms. This guide is about sourcing the camera systems themselves.

What a solar farm CCTV system actually is

A solar farm CCTV system is surveillance hardware that supplies its own power and its own network link: each camera carries an integrated photovoltaic panel, a rechargeable battery and a 4G LTE modem, so it runs with no mains connection and no site WiFi. In procurement terms — using the SolaGuard catalogue as the reference — that means an 8W or 15W panel, a battery between 8000mAh and 20000mAh, 1080p to 2K video, an IP66 enclosure, local recording to a microSD card of up to 128GB, and 5 to 10 minutes of labour to mount and commission each unit. There is no trenching, no cable run and no NVR cabinet anywhere in the bill of materials.

The search term covers two different sites that happen to need identical hardware. The first is a photovoltaic generation site: rows of modules, inverter stations and combiner boxes spread over hectares, where the assets at risk are copper, inverters and the modules themselves, and where — ironically — there is almost never a convenient low-voltage outlet at the fence line. The second is an agricultural farm or ranch, where the risk is livestock theft, equipment left in the open and unmonitored access tracks. Both share the same three constraints: a long perimeter, no distribution board near the thing you want to watch, and no fixed-line internet.

Why the two converge on one product

A distributor does not need two product lines here. Once you accept that power and backhaul travel with the camera rather than to the camera, the specification is the same for a 20 MW solar plant and a 40-hectare cattle operation. What changes between them is mounting hardware, the number of units, and how aggressively you size the panel and battery — not the camera family. That is why one catalogue can serve both enquiries, and why a single sample order can be demoed to both types of end customer.

What grid-tied CCTV costs you on an open site

The reason buyers search for solar CCTV rather than conventional CCTV is rarely the electricity bill. It is the civil works. On an open site the installed cost of a wired camera is dominated by the distance from the nearest board, and that cost is paid again every time the camera moves.

Three things break wired deployments on this kind of site specifically:

• Cable is itself a theft target. On a site where the threat is metal theft, running copper along the perimeter to power the anti-theft system is a poor plan.
• The site changes. Solar plants are commissioned in phases, and a farm's risk point moves with the season, the herd and the harvest. A camera that can be unbolted and re-sited in 5 to 10 minutes matches that; a trenched one does not.
• Downtime propagates. One damaged run can take out several cameras. Independent units fail independently.

AOV or PIR: the decision that determines whether the system works

This is the specification that most often gets a deployment rejected by an end customer, so it belongs in your first conversation with them, not in the after-sales call.

PIR-triggered cameras wake when a heat signature crosses a detection zone, record a clip, and sleep again. They are cheap and power-frugal, and on a large open site they miss things: a person approaching slowly, a vehicle at the far edge of the frame, anything that happens outside the configured zone, and — in the other direction — they fire repeatedly on livestock, foliage and hot surfaces.

AOV stands for Always-On Video. It is an industry-generic term, not a SolaGuard trademark: the camera records continuously, 24/7, and uses AI scene analysis to keep standby power low while still holding an unbroken timeline. For an insurance claim or a police report, the difference between a set of clips and a continuous recording is usually the difference between a payout and an argument.

Sizing the panel and battery

The 49 AOV models sit in four series. These counts and prices are exact — quote from them directly.

When the 8W / 8000mAh class is the right call

Unobstructed mounting, a sun-rich site and a normal duty cycle. This is most of Vietnam and most of the Latin American installations we quote. SG-C41G-10T66-V1 is the straightforward single-sensor entry point; SG-D42G-10F66-V1 adds the second lens for the same power class, which is usually the better demo unit because the end customer sees two fields of view on one pole.

When to pay for the 15W / 20000mAh class

Specify the SG-D42G-15F66-V* series — SG-D42G-15F66-V1 among them — when the site has any of: prolonged overcast or monsoon weeks, partial shading from module rows, buildings or tree lines, heavy night-time illumination use, or an end customer who simply will not tolerate a gap. The larger panel and battery are the only two levers that buy margin against bad weather, and retrofitting them later means replacing the camera.

The full range, including the non-AOV models, is on the product catalogue.

Resolution, storage and what to promise the end customer

Standard resolution across the line is 1080p to 2K. 4K exists only as a custom or OEM build, so do not quote it from the stock catalogue. Dual and triple lens models give you two or three fixed fields of view from a single pole, a single mount and a single SIM — on a perimeter that is often more useful than one higher-resolution sensor, because it covers the fence line and the access gate simultaneously.

Storage is microSD up to 128GB as standard. Anything above that is a custom-order conversation with the factory, not a spec you can promise off the shelf. Retention in days is not a fixed number: it depends on resolution, bitrate and whether the unit is recording continuously, so measure it on the sample under the customer's actual settings rather than quoting a figure. Weatherproofing is IP66 on the outdoor models — quote IP66 and nothing else, because a higher ingress rating is not what these enclosures are certified to.

Commercial terms for distributors

The manufacturer is Shenzhen Leksell, established 2012, certified by TÜV Rheinland and holding CE, FCC and RoHS.

Private label is available on every model, including all 49 AOV SKUs, at the 100-unit OEM MOQ. For solar-plant integrators and agricultural resellers, that is often the whole business case: the same hardware, your brand on the housing and in the app. Volume pricing sits on the wholesale page and tier structure on the dealer page.

What to check before you place the bulk order

Run the 10-unit trial as a real test, not a photo shoot:

• Mount one unit deliberately badly — partial shade, poor orientation — and see how it behaves over a full week, not a full day.
• Time the installation yourself. If your team cannot hit 5 to 10 minutes per camera after the second unit, the mounting kit or the pole spec is wrong, and that error multiplies across a 200-camera site.
• Test the 4G signal at the far corner of the site with the SIM the end customer will actually use, before you promise coverage.
• Fill a 128GB card at the customer's target settings and record how long it took. That is your retention number for the quote.
• Pull a clip at night at the distance the customer cares about, and confirm the detail is there at 2K. Nothing kills a repeat order faster than a night image that only works at 5 metres.

Anything outside these figures — a bigger battery, a larger panel, higher resolution, more storage, your branding — is a factory conversation, and quantity, price and lead time come from a person, not from a page. Write to info@solaguard.net with the site size, the perimeter length and the unit count, and you get a quote against real SKUs.