Patent ID: 11909351
Assignee: ADERIS ENERGY, LLC
Field: Electrical machinery, apparatus, energy (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 2:
3. A method of retrofitting a photovoltaic (PV) solar facility to replace an existing lower-voltage module, connected to connectors that terminate output circuits from the PV solar facility, with a new higher-voltage module, the existing lower-voltage module providing output voltage to a load at a first voltage, the method comprising:
(a) providing an inline DC feeder DC/DC voltage step-up harness and a first DC combiner box, wherein the inline DC feeder DC/DC voltage step-up harness includes:
(i) a housing,
(ii) a plurality of DC/DC converters disposed within the housing, each DC/DC converter having a two-pole input and a two-pole output,
(iii) wherein the outputs of the DC/DC converters are connected together in parallel in the housing and provided as an exterior two-pole output from the housing,
(iv) wherein each pole of the input of each of the plurality of DC/DC converters is terminated with a connector, and
(v) wherein each pole of the exterior output from the housing is terminated with a connector; and

(b) disconnecting a second DC combiner box from the plurality of connectors that terminate output circuits from the PV solar facility;
(c) after disconnecting, connecting inline DC feeder DC/DC voltage step-up harness to the output circuits from the PV solar facility by connecting the respective connectors together;
(d) connecting the first DC combiner box to the output from the housing via the respective connectors; and
(e) thereafter, providing an output voltage to the load at a second voltage, the second voltage being greater than the first voltage.