Photovoltaic device and operating point control circuit device for photovoltaic cells or other power supply elements connected in series
AssigneesToyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha, Tokyo Metropolitan University
InventorsShinichi Urabe, Toshihisa Shimizu
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Abstract
In a photovoltaic device or an operating point control circuit in which a current is output from a corresponding power supply cell or capacitor to between output terminals by periodically cutting off switching elements which are connected in series to a plurality of power supply cells and/or capacitors connected in series between the output terminals via inductors, cutoff duty ratios of all the switching elements are uniformly fixed to the same value in one cycle in which all the switching elements are cut off once.
Claims18
A photovoltaic device comprising:
- a plurality of photovoltaic cells which are connected in series between output terminals or a plurality of photovoltaic cells and capacitors, wherein the photovoltaic cells are connected in series between output terminals, the capacitors are connected in series between output terminals, and the photovoltaic cells and the capacitors are connected in parallel;
- a photovoltaic operating point control circuit device including an inductor and a switching element that are connected in parallel to each photovoltaic cell or each photovoltaic cell and capacitor which are connected in parallel, wherein the inductor and the switching element are connected in series, the photovoltaic operating point control circuit device being configured to output a current from the corresponding photovoltaic cell or capacitor to between the output terminals by periodically cutting off the switching elements,
- wherein the photovoltaic operating point control circuit device fixes cutoff duty ratios of all switching elements in one cycle in which the switching elements corresponding to all the plurality of photovoltaic cells or the plurality of photovoltaic cells and capacitors which are connected in series are cut off once,
- wherein a sum of cutoff durations of all the switching elements in one cycle is larger than a duration of one cycle, and
- wherein a part of the cutoff times overlap in the neighboring cutoff times.
An operating point control circuit device for a plurality of power supply cells which are connected in series, comprising:
- a pair of output terminals;
- a plurality of electrode connection terminals that are connected to electrode terminals of the plurality of power supply cells connected in series between the pair of output terminals;
- a capacitor that is connected in parallel to each of the plurality of power supply cells via the corresponding electrode connection terminal between the pair of output terminals;
- a switching element and an inductor that are connected in parallel to each of the plurality of power supply cells via the corresponding electrode connection terminal between the pair of output terminals and that selectively connects a pair of electrode connection terminals connected to each other, wherein the switching element and the inductor are connected in series;
- and
- a controller that alternately switches a state of each switching element between a connected state in which a pair of electrode connection terminals or terminals of a pair of capacitors are connected and a cut-off state in which a connection of both terminals is cut off in the same predetermined period,
- wherein the controller normally performs control such that at least a part of the switching elements are in the cut-off state and the other switching elements are in the connected state, and
- ratios of a duration of the cut-off state to the predetermined period in all the switching elements are uniformly fixed to the same value.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.