Power conditioning system for a four quadrant photovoltaic array with an inverter for each array quadrant
First Claim
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1. A photovoltaic (PV) array including embedded power conditioning comprising:
- a plurality of PV cells arranged in four quadrants of said array;
each of said quadrants comprises at least one string of said PV cells for generating a DC voltage;
each string of said PV cells comprises inverter means connected to said string DC voltage for converting said DC voltage to three-phase AC current outputs; and
means coupled to said output of said inverter means for summing said three-phase AC current outputs from each quadrant and forming a three-phase AC high voltage output.
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Abstract
A photovoltaic (PV) power system having distributed square wave current DC to AC inverters integral with strings of PV cells in a PV array. The PV array is arranged into four quadrants and phase-shifted and summed AC voltages from each quadrant are further summed in a 12-phase to 3-phase transformer to produce a sinusoidal 3-phase AC voltage with a total harmonic distortion of less than 5 percent.
179 Citations
29 Claims
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1. A photovoltaic (PV) array including embedded power conditioning comprising:
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a plurality of PV cells arranged in four quadrants of said array; each of said quadrants comprises at least one string of said PV cells for generating a DC voltage; each string of said PV cells comprises inverter means connected to said string DC voltage for converting said DC voltage to three-phase AC current outputs; and means coupled to said output of said inverter means for summing said three-phase AC current outputs from each quadrant and forming a three-phase AC high voltage output. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A power system comprising:
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a photovoltaic (PV) power source; said photovoltaic power source comprises an array of PV cells arranged in four quadrants of said array; each of said quadrants comprises at least one string of said PV cells for generating a DC voltage; each string of said PV cells comprises inverter means connected to said string DC voltage for converting said DC voltage to three-phase AC current outputs; circuit breaker means coupled to each of said three-phase AC current outputs from each inverter means in each quadrant of said PV array for protecting each string of said PV array; and means coupled to said circuit breaker means for summing said three-phase AC current outputs from each quadrant and forming a three-phase AC high voltage output of said power system. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A method of converting DC power to AC power embedded in a photovoltaic (PV) array comprising the steps of:
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arranging a plurality of PV cells in four quadrants of said array; providing in each of said quadrants at least one string of said PV cells for generating a DC voltage; converting said DC voltage to three-phase AC current outputs with inverter means connected to said string DC voltage in each string of said PV cells; and summing said three-phase AC current outputs from each quadrant and forming a three-phase AC high voltage output with means coupled to said output of said converter means. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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24. A method of providing a power system for generating an AC voltage for introduction to a utility grid comprising the steps of:
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providing a photovoltaic (PV) power source; arranging in said photovoltaic power source an array of PV cells in four quadrants of said array; providing in each of said quadrants at least one string of said PV cells for generating a DC voltage; converting said DC voltage to three-phase AC current outputs with inverter means connected to said string DC voltage in each string of said PV cells; providing circuit breaker means coupled to each of said three-phase AC current outputs from each inverter means in each quadrant of said PV array for protecting each string of said PV array; and summing said three-phase AC current outputs from each quadrant and forming a three-phase AC high voltage output of said power system with means coupled to said circuit breaker means. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
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Specification