March 2, 2023 Study compares drone energy usage to diesel trucks and electric vehicles to determine if the technology saves money type='text/javascript'> googletag. Drones used less energy than diesel trucks until the wind speed reached 20 miles per hour; however, wind speed needed to reach only 10 miles an hour before drones began to use more energy than electric vehicles. paper, "Energy consumption models for delivery drones: a comparison and assessment," charted a course for the Argonne study by reviewing drone energy consumption models and making difficult to digest complicated models easier to follow