Source: http://www.google.com/patents/US20090218887?dq=5920316
Timestamp: 2017-09-23 21:18:34
Document Index: 410619740

Matched Legal Cases: ['Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60']

Patent US20090218887 - Systems for Highly Efficient Solar Power Conversion - Google Patents
A high efficiency photovoltaic DC-DC converter achieves solar power conversion from high voltage, highly varying photovoltaic power sources to harvest maximum power from a solar source or strings of panels for DC or AC use, perhaps for transfer to a power grid at high power levels with coordinated control...http://www.google.com/patents/US20090218887?utm_source=gb-gplus-sharePatent US20090218887 - Systems for Highly Efficient Solar Power Conversion
Publication number US20090218887 A1
Application number US 12/363,709
Also published as CA2702392A1, CA2702392C, CA2737134A1, CN101904015A, CN101904015B, CN101904073A, CN101904073B, CN103296927A, EP2208236A1, EP2208236A4, EP2212983A1, EP2212983A4, US7605498, US7719140, US7843085, US8004116, US8093756, US8242634, US8304932, US8482153, US9438037, US9673630, US20100038968, US20100229915, US20100253150, US20100308662, US20110067745, US20110285205, US20120032515, US20120104864, US20140015325, US20160226257, US20160365734, WO2009051853A1, WO2009051854A1, WO2009051870A1
Publication number 12363709, 363709, US 2009/0218887 A1, US 2009/218887 A1, US 20090218887 A1, US 20090218887A1, US 2009218887 A1, US 2009218887A1, US-A1-20090218887, US-A1-2009218887, US2009/0218887A1, US2009/218887A1, US20090218887 A1, US20090218887A1, US2009218887 A1, US2009218887A1
Inventors Anatoli Ledenev, Robert M. Porter
Original Assignee And, Llc
Patent Citations (12), Referenced by (31), Classifications (21), Legal Events (4)
US 20090218887 A1
feeding each of said high voltage, highly varying DC photovoltaic outputs through a photovoltaic voltage increase modality of photovoltaic DC-DC power conversion;
feeding each of said high voltage, highly varying DC photovoltaic outputs through a photovoltaic voltage decrease modality of photovoltaic DC-DC power conversion responsive to said photovoltaic voltage increase modality of photovoltaic DC-DC power conversion;
photovoltaic inverter maximum current determinative duty cycle switching a photovoltaic DC-DC converter;
This application is a continuation-in-part of prior International Application No. PCT/US2008/080794, filed Oct. 22, 2008, which claims benefit of and priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/982,053, filed Oct. 23, 2007, and U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/986,979, filed Nov. 9, 2007; this application is a continuation-in-part of prior International Application No. PCT/US2008/070506, filed Jul. 18, 2008, which is a continuation-in-part of prior International Application No. PCT/US2008/060345, filed Apr. 15, 2008, and which is a continuation-in-part of prior International Application No. PCT/US2008/057105, filed Mar. 14, 2008, and which claims benefit of and priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/980,157, filed Oct. 15, 2007, U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/982,053, filed Oct. 23, 2007, and U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/986,979, filed Nov. 9, 2007; this application is a continuation-in-part of prior International Application No. PCT/US2008/060345, filed Apr. 15, 2008, which is a continuation-in-part of prior International Application No. PCT/US2008/057105, filed Mar. 14, 2008, and which claims benefit of and priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/980,157, filed Oct. 15, 2007, U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/982,053, filed Oct. 23, 2007, and U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/986,979, filed Nov. 9, 2007; this application is a continuation-in-part of prior International Application No. PCT/US2008/057105, filed Mar. 14, 2008, which claims the benefit of and priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/980,157, filed Oct. 15, 2007, U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/982,053, filed Oct. 23, 2007, and U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/986,979, filed Nov. 9, 2007; each hereby incorporated herein by reference.
A. Non-uniformity between panels.
B. Partial shade
C. Dirt or accumulated matter blocking sunlight
D. Damage to a panel
E. Non-uniform degradation of panels over time
It may also be troublesome when expensive PV panels are placed in series and the weakest panel limits the power from every other panel. Unfortunately, the series connection may be desired to get high enough voltage to efficiently transmit power through a local distribution to a load, perhaps such as a grid-tied inverter. Further, in many systems, the PV panels may be located on a rooftop, such as for a residential installation. And the inverter is often located at a distance from the rooftop, such as by the power meter or the like. So in embodiments, a way to connect the panels in series but not suffer the losses caused by the lowest power panel, or any series parallel combination, may be needed. There may also be a desire to use unlike types of panels at the same time perhaps without regarding to the connection configuration desired (series or parallel, etc.) as well as other brands of components such as traditional inverters and the like that achieve traditional inverting.
Whether for maximum power point tracking or conversion efficiency, the techniques of photovoltaic power conversion have been recognized as an important limit to solar energy ultimately realizing its potential. Methods of solar power conversion have been proposed that utilize DC/DC converters on each panel along with an MPP circuit as one attempt to enhance the efficiency of energy harvesting when utilizing strings of solar panels. Such attempts, however, have resulted in unacceptably low efficiencies that have made such approaches impractical. These techniques have even been dismissed to some degree by those considering such issues. For example, in the article by G. R. Walker, J. Xue and P. Semia entitled “PV String Per-Module Maximum Power Point Enabling Converters” those authors may have even suggested that efficiency losses were inevitable but that this module approach held advantages, even though it was attended by poor efficiency. There seems to have been an acceptance that MPPT aspects inevitably led to low efficiency conversion. Similarly, two of the same authors, G. R. Walker and P. Semia in the article entitled “Cascaded DC-DC Converter Connection of Photovoltaic Modules” suggested that the needed technologies are always at an efficiency disadvantage. These references even include an efficiency vs. power graph showing a full power efficiency of approximately 91%. Operation of expensive PV panels with operation through a low efficiency converter is simply not acceptable in the marketplace. The present invention shows that such inefficiencies are not inevitable and highly efficient operation can in fact be achieved in such operations.
V′ Positive P′ Positive Raise MPP
V′ Positive P′ Negative Lower MPP
V′ Negative P′ Positive Lower MPP
V′ Negative P′ Negative Raise MPP
There may be numerous other circuit configurations for finding derivatives and logic for the output, of course. In general, a power conditioner (17) may include power calculation circuitry (firmware, or software)(21) which may even be photovoltaic multiplicative resultant circuitry (22). These circuitries may act to effect a result or respond to an item which is analogous to a power indication (even if not the precise mathematical resultant of a V*I multiplication function). This may of course be a V*I type of calculation of some power parameters and the system may react to either raise or lower itself in some way to ultimately move closer to and eventually achieve operation at an MPP level. By provided a capability and achieving the step of calculating a photovoltaic multiplicative power parameter, the system can respond to that parameter for the desired result.
One more system problem may also be addressed. In solar installations it may occur on rare conditions that a panel or field of panels may be subjected to more than full sun. This may happen when a refractory situation exists with clouds or other reflective surfaces. It may be that a PV source may generate as much as 1.5 times the rated power for a few minutes. The grid tied inverter section must either be able to operate at this higher power (adding cost) or must somehow avoid this power. A power limit in the PC may be the most effective way to solve this problem. In general, protection of some other element can be achieved by the converter. Embodiments can include aspects such as photovoltaic converter operating condition controlling the photovoltaic DC-DC converter. This may even be a posterior or downstream element such as the inverter and so the converter functionality control circuitry (8) may achieve controlling a posterior photovoltaic operating condition through control of the photovoltaic DC-DC converter, as well as protecting a posterior photovoltaic element through control of said photovoltaic DC-DC converter, and may serve to achieve photovoltaic inverter protection modality of photovoltaic DC-DC power conversion and may be considered as photovoltaic inverter protection converter functionality control circuitry. Beyond protection, desirable inverter or other operating conditions can be achieved by the converter, thus embodiments may include photovoltaic inverter operating condition converter functionality control circuitry or photovoltaic converter operating condition converter functionality control circuitry. These may be simply coordinated in some manner such as by a photovoltaic inverter or posterior photovoltaic or other element coordinated modality or photovoltaic inverter or posterior photovoltaic element coordinated converter functionality control circuitry, or posterior photovoltaic element protection converter functionality control circuitry. Embodiments may accomplish controlling said photovoltaic DC-DC converter to coordinate with characteristics of a photovoltaic inverter, slavedly controlling a photovoltaic conversion modality through said photovoltaic DC-DC converter, and photovoltaic inverter slavedly controlling a photovoltaic conversion modality through said photovoltaic DC-DC converter, to name a few possibilites. There may also be embodiments that have small output voltage (even within an allowed output voltage range). This may accommodate an inverter with a small energy storage capacitor. The output voltage may even be coordinated with an inverter' energy storage capability.
Every PV panel may produce its individual maximum power. Many estimates today indicate this may increase the power generated in a PV installation by 20% or even more.
The grid tied inverter may be greatly simplified and operate more efficiently.
The photovoltaic DC-DC converter may be greatly simplified and operate more efficiently.
The Balance of System costs for a PV installation may be reduced.
The circuitry, concepts and methods of various embodiments of the invention may be broadly applied. It may be that one or more PCs per panel may be used. For example there may be non-uniformities on a single panel or other reasons for harvesting power from even portions of a panel. It may be for example that small power converters may be used on panel segments optimizing the power which may be extracted from a panel. This invention is explicitly stated to include sub panel applications.
US6218605 * Apr 23, 1997 Apr 17, 2001 Robert B. Dally Performance optimizing system for a satellite solar array
US6914418 * Apr 21, 2003 Jul 5, 2005 Phoenixtec Power Co., Ltd. Multi-mode renewable power converter system
US7068017 * Sep 5, 2003 Jun 27, 2006 Daimlerchrysler Corporation Optimization arrangement for direct electrical energy converters
US7365661 * Nov 14, 2002 Apr 29, 2008 Fyre Storm, Inc. Power converter circuitry and method
US20040135560 * Nov 14, 2002 Jul 15, 2004 Kent Kernahan Power converter circuitry and method
US20080164766 * Dec 4, 2007 Jul 10, 2008 Meir Adest Current bypass for distributed power harvesting systems using dc power sources
US8319378 * Aug 9, 2011 Nov 27, 2012 Enphase Energy, Inc. Method and apparatus for improved burst mode during power conversion
US8358489 Aug 27, 2010 Jan 22, 2013 International Rectifier Corporation Smart photovoltaic panel and method for regulating power using same
US8369999 * Jun 2, 2010 Feb 5, 2013 Adensis Gmbh Method and apparatus for forecasting shadowing for a photovoltaic system
US8492932 Sep 14, 2012 Jul 23, 2013 Enphase Energy, Inc. Method and apparatus for improved burst mode during power conversion
US8587267 Jul 11, 2011 Nov 19, 2013 Abb Oy Current-fed converter
US8711590 Mar 28, 2011 Apr 29, 2014 Semikron Elektronik Gmbh & Co., Kg Circuit and method for generating an AC voltage from a plurality of voltage sources having a temporally variable DC output voltage
US9461561 Jul 17, 2013 Oct 4, 2016 Enphase Energy, Inc. Method and apparatus for improved burst mode during power conversion
US9523723 Apr 9, 2013 Dec 20, 2016 Utah State University Fractional order power point tracking
US20110121647 * Sep 21, 2010 May 26, 2011 Renewable Energy Solution Systems, Inc. Solar power distribution system
US20110235377 * Mar 28, 2011 Sep 29, 2011 Semikron Elektronik Gmbh & Co. Kg Circuit and Method for Generating an AC Voltage from a Plurality of Voltage Sources Having a Temporally Variable DC Output Voltage
US20120228947 * Oct 28, 2010 Sep 13, 2012 Noam Kornblitt Noy Energy collection system and method
CN101860267A * Apr 13, 2010 Oct 13, 2010 重庆大学 Building method for photovoltaic power generation control system
DE102010013138A1 * Mar 27, 2010 Sep 29, 2011 Semikron Elektronik Gmbh & Co. Kg Schaltungsanordnung und Verfahren zur Erzeugung einer Wechselspannung aus einer Mehrzahl von Spannungsquellen mit zeitlich variabler Ausgangsgleichspannung
WO2011035326A1 * Sep 21, 2010 Mar 24, 2011 Renewable Energy Solution Systems, Inc. Solar power distribution system
WO2011049985A1 * Oct 19, 2010 Apr 28, 2011 Ampt, Llc Novel solar panel string converter topology
WO2013184455A1 * May 29, 2013 Dec 12, 2013 Solaredge Technologies Ltd. Integrated photovoltaic panel circuitry
International Classification H02M1/00, H02J1/00, G05F5/04
Cooperative Classification H02J3/385, H02J3/00, Y10T307/707, Y10T307/685, Y10T307/615, Y10T307/658, Y10T307/609, Y10T307/696, Y10T307/718, Y04S10/123, Y10S136/293, Y02P80/23, H02J13/0003, Y02E10/58, Y02E40/72, H02M2001/0077
Owner name: AND, LLC, COLORADO
Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNORS:LEDENEV, ANATOLI;PORTER, ROBERT M.;REEL/FRAME:022186/0787
Free format text: CHANGE OF NAME;ASSIGNOR:AND, LLC;REEL/FRAME:022583/0336
Owner name: AMPT, LLC,COLORADO