Patent ID: 8080899

Claim:
A solar inverter device for operatively coupling to an electrical power grid, comprising: a photovoltaic (PV) module stack including a plurality of series-connected PV modules, each PV module connected in parallel with a capacitor for storing output of that PV module; a positive terminator circuit for switching a negative end of the PV module stack to ground during a positive half of grid cycle; a negative terminator for switching a positive end of the PV module stack to ground during a negative half of the grid cycle; and a connecting branch from each PV module output to a common bus, each branch including branch control circuitry configured to selectively couple the corresponding PV module output to the common bus, wherein during a first half of the grid cycle, one or more of the capacitors is discharging to the power grid while a balance of the capacitors are charging in preparation for their discharge during a second half of the grid cycle; and wherein each of the connecting branches further comprises a positive cycle switch and negative cycle switch, each controlled by a corresponding opto-coupler included in the branch control circuitry, and the opto-couplers are automatically controlled by reacting to differences between the line voltage of the power grid and instantaneous voltage of the PV module stack series connection.