Patent ID: 8547669

Claim:
A photovoltaic system for generating electrical power, the photovoltaic system comprising: one or more solar panels each including at least one photovoltaic cell; one or more shuttering assemblies each configured to selectively limit a quantity of light received by at least one of the one or more solar panels; one or more inverters or converters, or both, electrically connected to the one or more solar panels; one or more sensing devices each operable to detect characteristics of an arc fault event in the photovoltaic system and output a signal indicative thereof; and one or more control modules operatively connected to the one or more shuttering assemblies, the one or more inverters or converters, and the one or more sensing devices; the one or more control modules being configured, in response to the output signals indicating there is an arc fault event, to direct the one or more shuttering assemblies to reduce the quantity of light received by at least one of the one or more solar panels and to turn off the one or more inverters or converters or to electrically disconnect the one or more inverters or converters from the one or more solar panels, or both.