Patent ID: 11146210

Abstract:
A method of repowering a photovoltaic power plant from a first configuration is described, wherein in the first configuration, a pair of combiners is connected in series between two homeruns via a PV tie device. The combiners are configured to combine DC power produced by solar generators respectively connected thereto and provide the combined DC power at outputs thereof, and the PV tie device is configured to couple a midpoint potential of the series connected combiners to ground during operation of the power plant. The homeruns transmit the combined DC power to an old inverter for conversion into AC power for feeding into an AC grid connected to the old inverter. The method includes removing the PV tie device and interconnecting the combiner outputs by an interconnection structure with no coupling to ground, introducing at least one galvanically isolating DC/DC-converter for each combiner of the pair of combiners such that the homeruns are galvanically isolated from any of the solar generators, coupling one terminal of each of the respective solar generators to ground, and replacing the old inverter by a new inverter. The new inverter is configured to vary the potential on the homeruns relative to ground during operation of the power plant. A repowering kit is also described.