AC Power Systems for Renewable Electrical Energy

• US 20100253150A1
• Filed: 04/15/2008
• Published: 10/07/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/15/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ampt, LLC
• Original Assignee: Ampt, LLC
• Inventors: Ledenev, Anatoli, Porter, Robert M.
• Granted Patent: US 8,093,756 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 307/82
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00 Circuit arrangements for providing remote indication of network conditions, e.g. an instantaneous record of the open or closed condition of each circuitbreaker in the network; Circuit arrangements for providing remote control of switching means in a power distribution network, e.g. switching in and out of current consumers by using a pulse code signal carried by the network
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2300/26 involving maximum power point tracking control for photovoltaic sources maximum power point systems in particular G05F1/67
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/00 Circuit arrangements for ac mains or ac distribution networks
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/38 Arrangements for parallely feeding a single network by two or more generators, converters or transformers
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/381 Dispersed generators
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/388 Islanding, i.e. disconnection of local power supply from the network
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 1/0077 Plural converter units whose outputs are connected in series
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 10/56 Power conversion systems, e.g. maximum power point trackers
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 40/70 Smart grids as climate change mitigation technology in the energy generation sector
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 80/20 using renewable energy
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 10/123 the energy generation units being or involving renewable energy sources
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 136/293 Circuits

Abstract

Renewable electrical energy is provided with aspects and circuitry that can harvest maximum power from an alternative electrical energy source (1) such as a string of solar panels (11) for a power grid (10). Aspects include: i) controlling electrical power creation from photovoltaic DC-AC inverter (5), ii) operating photovoltaic DC-AC inverter (5) at maximal efficiency even when MPP would not be, iii) protecting DC-AC inverter (5) so input can vary over a range of insolation and temperature, and iv) providing dynamically reactive capability to react and assure operation, to permit differing components, to achieve code compliant dynamically reactive photovoltaic power control circuitry (41). With previously explained converters, inverter control circuitry (38) or photovoltaic power converter functionality control circuitry (8) configured as inverter sweet spot converter control circuitry (46) can achieve extraordinary efficiencies with substantially power isomorphic photovoltaic capability at 99.2% efficiency or even only wire transmission losses.

Claims

1-7. -7. (canceled)

8. An inverter optimized renewable electrical energy power system comprising:

at least one alternative electrical energy source having a DC photovoltaic output;

at least one photovoltaic DC-DC power converter responsive to said DC photovoltaic output and having a photovoltaic DC converter output;

a DC-AC inverter responsive to said photovoltaic DC converter output;

reactive inverter input optimization photovoltaic power control circuitry; and

a photovoltaic AC power output responsive to said photovoltaic DC-AC inverter wherein said reactive inverter input optimization photovoltaic power control circuitry comprises inverter efficiency optimized converter control circuitry.

9. An inverter optimized renewable electrical energy power system as described in claim 8 wherein said reactive inverter input optimization photovoltaic power control circuitry comprises solar panel maximum power point independent inverter input optimization photovoltaic power control circuitry.

10. (canceled)

11. An inverter optimized renewable electrical energy power system as described in claim 8 wherein said reactive inverter input optimization photovoltaic power control circuitry comprises inverter voltage input set point converter output voltage control circuitry.

12. An inverter optimized renewable electrical energy power system as described in claim 11 wherein said inverter voltage input set point converter output voltage control circuitry comprises inverter sweet spot converter control circuitry.

13. An inverter optimized renewable electrical energy power system as described in claim 12 wherein said inverter sweet spot converter control circuitry comprises photovoltaic inverter duty cycle switch control circuitry.

14. An inverter optimized renewable electrical energy power system as described in claim 8 wherein said inverter efficiency optimized converter control circuitry comprises substantially power isomorphic photovoltaic inverter input control circuitry.

15. An inverter optimized renewable electrical energy power system as described in claim 14 wherein said substantially power isomorphic photovoltaic inverter input control circuitry comprises substantially power isomorphic photovoltaic inverter duty cycle control circuitry.

16. An inverter optimized renewable electrical energy power system as described in claim 8 wherein said inverter efficiency optimized converter control circuitry comprises inverter efficiency optimized converter control circuitry selected from a group consisting of:

at least about 97% efficient photovoltaic conversion circuitry,

at least about 97.5% efficient photovoltaic conversion circuitry,

at least about 98% efficient photovoltaic conversion circuitry,

at least about 98.5% efficient photovoltaic conversion circuitry,

at least about 97% up to about 99.2% efficient photovoltaic conversion circuitry,

at least about 97.5% up to about 99.2% efficient photovoltaic conversion circuitry,

at least about 98% up to about 99.2% efficient photovoltaic conversion circuitry,

at least about 98.5% up to about 99.2% efficient photovoltaic conversion circuitry,

at least about 97% up to about wire transmission loss efficient photovoltaic conversion circuitry,

at least about 97.5% up to about wire transmission loss efficient photovoltaic conversion circuitry,

at least about 98% up to about wire transmission loss efficient photovoltaic conversion circuitry, and

at least about 98.5% up to about wire transmission loss efficient photovoltaic conversion circuitry.

17-29. -29. (canceled)

30. A dynamically reactive renewable electrical energy power system comprising:

at least one alternative electrical energy source having a DC photovoltaic output;

at least one photovoltaic DC-DC power converter responsive to said DC photovoltaic output and having a photovoltaic DC converter output;

a DC-AC inverter responsive to said photovoltaic DC converter output;

dynamically reactive internal output limited photovoltaic power control circuitry; and

a photovoltaic AC power output responsive to said photovoltaic DC-AC inverter.

31. A dynamically reactive renewable electrical energy power system as described in claim 30 wherein said dynamically reactive internal output limited photovoltaic power control circuitry comprises dynamically multisource reactive photovoltaic power control circuitry.

32. A dynamically reactive renewable electrical energy power system as described in claim 31 wherein said dynamically multisource reactive photovoltaic power control circuitry comprises converter voltage output limited photovoltaic power control circuitry.

33. A dynamically reactive renewable electrical energy power system as described in claim 31 wherein said dynamically multisource reactive photovoltaic power control circuitry comprises converter current output limited photovoltaic power control circuitry.

34. A dynamically reactive renewable electrical energy power system as described in claim 30 wherein said dynamically reactive internal output limited photovoltaic power control circuitry comprises code compliant dynamically reactive photovoltaic power control circuitry.

35. A dynamically reactive renewable electrical energy power system as described in claim 34 wherein said code compliant dynamically reactive photovoltaic power control circuitry comprises slaved dynamically reactive photovoltaic power control circuitry.

36. A dynamically reactive renewable electrical energy power system as described in claim 35 wherein said slaved dynamically reactive photovoltaic power control circuitry comprises slaved code compliant dynamically reactive photovoltaic power control circuitry.

37. A renewable electrical energy power system as described in claim 8 or 30 wherein said at least one alternative electrical energy source comprises at least one solar cell.

38. A renewable electrical energy power system as described in claim 8 or 30 wherein said at least one alternative electrical energy source comprises a plurality of electrically connected solar cells.

39. A renewable electrical energy power system as described in claim 8 or 30 wherein said at least one alternative electrical energy source comprises a plurality of adjacent electrically connected solar cells.

40. A renewable electrical energy power system as described in claim 8 or 30 wherein said at least one alternative electrical energy source comprises at least one solar panel.

41. A renewable electrical energy power system as described in claim 8 or 30 wherein said at least one alternative electrical energy source comprises a plurality of electrically connected solar panels.

42. A renewable electrical energy power system as described in claim 8 or 30 wherein said at least one alternative electrical energy source comprises at least one string of electrically connected solar panels.

43. A renewable electrical energy power system as described in claim 41 wherein said at least one photovoltaic DC-DC power converter comprises a plurality of individually panel dedicated photovoltaic DC-DC power converters.

44. A renewable electrical energy power system as described in claim 43 wherein said at least one photovoltaic DC-DC power converter comprises a plurality of individually panel dedicated maximum photovoltaic power point converter functionality control circuitries.

45. A renewable electrical energy power system as described in claim 44 wherein said plurality of individually panel dedicated photovoltaic DC-DC power converters and said plurality of individually panel dedicated maximum power point converter functionality control circuitries are each physically integrated with individual solar panels.

46. A renewable electrical energy power system as described in claim 43 wherein said plurality of individually panel dedicated photovoltaic DC-DC power converters and said plurality of solar panels comprise a plurality of series connected strings of solar power circuits.

47-49. -49. (canceled)

50. A renewable electrical energy power system as described in claim 8 or 30 wherein said photovoltaic DC-DC power converter comprises at least one multimodal photovoltaic DC-DC power converter and further comprises multimodal converter functionality control circuitry.

51. A renewable electrical energy power system as described in claim 50 wherein said wherein said multimodal converter functionality control circuitry comprises photovoltaic boundary condition converter functionality control circuitry.

52. A renewable electrical energy power system as described in claim 50 wherein said multimodal converter functionality control circuitry comprises a maximum photovoltaic inverter input photovoltaic converter output voltage functionality control circuitry.

53. A renewable electrical energy power system as described in claim 50 wherein said multimodal converter functionality control circuitry comprises maximum photovoltaic output voltage-photovoltaic output current proportional photovoltaic converter functionality control circuitry.

54. A renewable electrical energy power system as described in claim 50 wherein said multimodal converter functionality control circuitry comprises:

maximum photovoltaic inverter current converter functionality control circuitry;

slaved maximum photovoltaic power point converter functionality control circuitry; and

maximum photovoltaic inverter input photovoltaic voltage converter output voltage functionality control circuitry.

55. A renewable electrical energy power system as described in claim 50 wherein said multimodal converter functionality control circuitry comprises:

maximum photovoltaic inverter current converter functionality control circuitry;

slaved photovoltaic voltage increase and photovoltaic voltage decrease maximum photovoltaic power point converter functionality control circuitry; and

maximum photovoltaic inverter input voltage photovoltaic converter output voltage functionality control circuitry.

56. A renewable electrical energy power system as described in claim 50 wherein said multimodal converter functionality control circuitry comprises multimodal converter functionality control circuitry selected from a group consisting of:

alternative mode photovoltaic power converter functionality control circuitry configured to alternatively switch at least some times between first modality photovoltaic DC-DC power conversion circuitry and second modality photovoltaic DC-DC power conversion circuitry;

both photovoltaic load impedance increase converter functionality control circuitry and photovoltaic load impedance decrease converter functionality control circuitry;

photovoltaic boundary condition converter functionality control circuitry;

posterior photovoltaic operating condition converter functionality control circuitry;

posterior photovoltaic element protection converter functionality control circuitry;

substantially power isomorphic photovoltaic converter functionality control circuitry;

photovoltaic disable mode converter functionality control circuitry;

photovoltaic inverter protection converter functionality control circuitry;

photovoltaic inverter coordinated converter functionality control circuitry;

photovoltaic slaved mode converter functionality control circuitry; and

photovoltaic inverter slaved converter functionality control circuitry.

57-60. -60. (canceled)

61. A renewable electrical energy power system as described in claim 8 or 30 and further comprising inverter sourced photovoltaic power conversion output control circuitry.

62. A renewable electrical energy power system as described in claim 61 wherein said inverter sourced photovoltaic power conversion output control circuitry comprises solar panel maximum power point independent power conversion output control circuitry.

63. A renewable electrical energy power system as described in claim 62 wherein said solar panel maximum power point independent power conversion output control circuitry comprises solar panel maximum power point independent inverter input voltage control circuitry.

64. A renewable electrical energy power system as described in claim 61 wherein said inverter sourced photovoltaic power conversion output control circuitry comprises substantially constant power conversion voltage output control circuitry.

65. A renewable electrical energy power system as described in claim 64 wherein said substantially constant power conversion voltage output control circuitry comprises photovoltaic inverter duty cycle switch control circuitry.

66. A renewable electrical energy power system as described in claim 61 wherein said inverter sourced photovoltaic power conversion output control circuitry comprises slaved inverter operating condition control circuitry.

67. An integrated renewable electrical energy power system as described in claim 66 wherein said slaved inverter operating condition control circuitry comprises slaved inverter sweet spot control circuitry.

68-96. -96. (canceled)

97. A renewable electrical energy power system as described in claim 8 or 30 wherein said control circuitry comprises photovoltaic inverter duty cycle switch control circuitry.

98. A renewable electrical energy power system as described in claim 97 wherein said photovoltaic inverter duty cycle switch control circuitry comprises photovoltaic inverter duty cycle switch control circuitry selected from a group consisting of:

maximum inverter voltage determinative switching photovoltaic power conversion control circuitry; and

maximum inverter current determinative switching photovoltaic power conversion control circuitry.

99. A renewable electrical energy power system as described in claim 97 wherein said photovoltaic duty cycle switch control circuitry further comprises maximum photovoltaic voltage determinative duty cycle switch control circuitry.

100-132. -132. (canceled)

133. A method of dynamically reactive renewable electrical energy power creation comprising the steps of:

creating a DC photovoltaic output from at least one alternative electrical energy source;

establishing said DC photovoltaic output as a DC photovoltaic input to a photovoltaic DC-DC power converter;

dynamically reactively converting said DC photovoltaic input into a converted DC photovoltaic output;

dynamically reactively controlling internal output through operation of said photovoltaic DC-DC converter while it acts to convert said DC photovoltaic input into said converted DC photovoltaic output;

establishing said converted DC photovoltaic output as a converted DC photovoltaic input to a photovoltaic DC-AC inverter; and

inverting said converted DC photovoltaic input into a photovoltaic AC power output.

134. A method of dynamically reactive renewable electrical energy power creation as described in claim 133 wherein said step of dynamically reactively controlling internal output through operation of said photovoltaic DC-DC converter comprises the step of multisource dynamically reactively controlling internal output through operation of said photovoltaic DC-DC converter.

135. A method of dynamically reactive renewable electrical energy power creation as described in claim 134 wherein said step of multisource dynamically reactively controlling internal output through operation of said photovoltaic DC-DC converter comprises the step of controlling a limited photovoltaic converter voltage output through operation of said photovoltaic DC-DC converter.

136. A method of dynamically reactive renewable electrical energy power creation as described in claim 134 wherein said step of multisource dynamically reactively controlling internal output through operation of said photovoltaic DC-DC converter comprises the step of controlling a limited photovoltaic converter current output through operation of said photovoltaic DC-DC converter.

137. A method of dynamically reactive renewable electrical energy power creation as described in claim 133 wherein said step of dynamically reactively controlling internal output through operation of said photovoltaic DC-DC converter comprises the step of code compliantly dynamically reactively controlling internal output through operation of said photovoltaic DC-DC converter.

138. A method of dynamically reactive renewable electrical energy power creation as described in claim 137 wherein said step of code compliantly dynamically reactively controlling internal output through operation of said photovoltaic DC-DC converter comprises the step of slavedly dynamically reactively controlling internal output through operation of said photovoltaic DC-DC converter.

139. A method of dynamically reactive renewable electrical energy power creation as described in claim 138 wherein said step of slavedly dynamically reactively controlling internal output through operation of said photovoltaic DC-DC converter comprises the step of slavedly code compliantly dynamically reactively controlling internal output through operation of said photovoltaic DC-DC converter.

140-143. -143. (canceled)

144. A method of dynamically reactive renewable electrical energy power creation as described in claim 133 wherein said step of creating a DC photovoltaic output from at least one solar energy source comprises the step of combining outputs from a plurality of electrically connected solar panels.

145. A method of dynamically reactive renewable electrical energy power creation as described in claim 133 wherein said step of creating a DC photovoltaic output from at least one solar energy source comprises the step of creating a DC photovoltaic output from at least one string of electrically connected solar panels.

146. A method of dynamically reactive renewable electrical energy power creation as described in claim 144 wherein said step of converting said DC photovoltaic input further comprises the step of individual dedicated panel converting a DC photovoltaic input from each of said plurality of solar panels.

147. A method of dynamically reactive renewable electrical energy power creation as described in claim 146 wherein said step of individual dedicated panel converting a DC photovoltaic input from each of said plurality of solar panels comprises the step of individual dedicated maximum photovoltaic power point converting a DC photovoltaic input from each of said plurality of solar panels.

148. A method of dynamically reactive renewable electrical energy power creation as described in claim 147 wherein said step of converting said DC photovoltaic input comprises the step of physically integrally converting said DC photovoltaic input for individual solar panels.

149. A method of dynamically reactive renewable electrical energy power creation as described in claim 146 and further comprising the step of serially connecting a plurality of photovoltaic DC-DC power converters to serially connect outputs from said plurality of solar panels.

150-206. -206. (canceled)

207. A method of dynamically reactive renewable electrical energy power creation as described in claim 133 wherein said step of creating a DC photovoltaic output from at least one alternative electrical energy source comprises the step of creating a DC photovoltaic output from each of a plurality of solar panels arranged in a photovoltaic array;

and wherein said step of dynamically reactively controlling internal output through operation of said photovoltaic DC-DC converter while it acts to convert said DC photovoltaic input into said converted DC photovoltaic output comprises the step of dynamically reactively individual panel controlling internal output through operation of said photovoltaic DC-DC converter while it acts to convert said DC photovoltaic input