What we heard from the field: Peer-led workflows at the Propeller Advanced Workshop

H2 Enterprises: Scaling data operations across thousands of acres

Kasen Huwa has spent more than 30 years in information technology across industries ranging from power generation to local government. When he joined H2 Enterprises, he brought that systems-thinking background to heavy civil construction, and it shows in how the team approaches site data.

H2 has been delivering utility-scale solar farm earthwork for eight years. What started as roughly 100-acre projects has grown into developments spanning 8,000 to 10,000 acres. At that scale, the gap between what’s happening in the field and what the office knows about it isn’t just an inconvenience. It’s a margin risk.

“If your flights are off by a tenth or two over an 8,000-acre solar farm, that is a lot of dirt,” Kasen told the room. H2’s answer to that problem is disciplined data operations: flights that take two and a half hours to execute correctly, extensive design validation before anything hits the field, and a deliberate effort to put accurate information in the hands of the people closest to the work.

H2 adopted the Propeller platform in January 2023, starting with two DJI Phantom 4 RTK units. Today, their fleet includes nine DJI Mavic 3 Enterprise systems, a WingtraOne GEN II equipped with 61 MP imagery and LiDAR, a Quantum-Systems Trinity Pro with the same sensor suite, 40 AeroPoints, and 20 DirtMate units. That’s not a drone program. That’s a data infrastructure.

Kasen’s session focused on three things that resonate with any team managing work at scale: getting actionable data into the hands of site teams without making them wait, using drone flights alongside design files to close the gap between what was planned and what’s being built, and integrating DirtMate’s machine operator view and point capture capabilities into daily field operations.

On the DirtMate rover, Kasen was direct: “I tried to prove the system wrong, but it was within three-hundredths of my expensive rover.” H2 has since committed to deploying at least two DirtMate rovers on every site, replacing equipment that costs significantly more and is far easier to damage in the field.

The throughline across all of it was empowerment. H2’s goal isn’t to give the office more visibility into the field. It’s to give field teams the information they need to make good decisions without having to call anyone. For Kasen, that’s less about any single feature and more about what the platform has become for his team. “I love the DirtMates and the data transparency. I also love that the Propeller team listens to us. We suggest a feature, like staking out to line work, and they actually build it.”

What both sessions had in common

Different companies, different scales, different challenges, but a few themes ran through both sessions.

Data is only valuable if teams can act on it.

Both Kasen and Blake are building workflows where the people closest to the work have the information they need, when they need it, without friction.

Technology adoption isn’t a one-time event.

H2’s progression from two drones to a nine-unit fleet with LiDAR integration didn’t happen overnight. It happened because the team kept asking what was possible and kept building on what worked.

Peer learning is irreplaceable.

The energy in the room during both sessions wasn’t just engagement. It was recognition. Site managers and surveyors saw their own problems reflected in someone else’s workflow, and walked away with approaches they could take back to their teams the next morning.

That’s the point of a session like this. Not a product demo. A conversation between people solving the same problems from different angles.