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US 8,427,010 B2Granted
DC-to-AC power conversion system and method
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsSumit Bose, Ralph Teichmann, Kathleen Ann O'Brien
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Abstract
A system, in one embodiment, includes a photovoltaic power converter. The photovoltaic power converter includes one or more photovoltaic arrays configured convert solar energy into a DC signal and two or more N-level converters coupled to a common DC bus (N being an integer greater than 2).
Claims20
A system comprising:
- a photovoltaic power converter comprising:
- one or more photovoltaic arrays configured to convert solar energy into a DC signal;
- and
- three or more N-level converters coupled to a common DC bus, wherein N is an integer greater than 2, and wherein the three or more N-level converters comprise:
- a first DC-to-DC N-level converter configured to step up the DC signal from a first DC voltage to a second DC voltage;
- a second DC-to-DC N-level converter configured to couple to an energy device and the first DC-to-DC N-level converter;
- and
- at least one DC-to-AC N-level converter coupled to the first DC-to-DC N-level converter and the second DC-to-DC N-level converter, wherein the at least one DC-to-AC N-level converter is configured to convert the second DC voltage to an AC signal.
5 more elements
A system, comprising:
- a photovoltaic power converter comprising:
- two or more photovoltaic arrays coupled in series and configured to convert solar energy into a DC signal, wherein the two or more photovoltaic arrays comprise a first photovoltaic array comprising a first plurality of photovoltaic cells and a second photovoltaic array comprising a second plurality of photovoltaic cells;
- a grounding point coupled between the first and second photovoltaic arrays;
- a first DC-to-DC N-level converter configured to step up the DC signal from a first DC voltage to a second DC voltage, wherein the first DC-to-DC N-level converter is coupled downstream from the two or more photovoltaic arrays and wherein N is an integer greater than 2;
- a second DC-to-DC N-level converter configured to couple to an energy device and the first DC-to-DC N-level converter;
- and
- a DC-to-AC N-level converter coupled to the first DC-to-DC N-level converter and the second DC-to-DC N-level converter, wherein the DC-to-AC N-level converter comprises at least one N-level converter configured to convert the second DC voltage into an AC signal.
4 more elements
A system comprising:
- a power converter comprising:
- at least one DC power source configured to output a DC signal;
- a first DC-to-DC N-level converter configured to step up the DC signal from a first DC voltage to a second DC voltage, wherein N is an integer greater than 2;
- a second DC-to-DC N-level converter configured to couple to an energy device and the first DC-to-DC N-level converter;
- and
- two or more DC-to-AC N-level converters coupled to the first DC-to-DC N-level converter and the second DC-to-DC N-level converter, wherein each of the two or more DC-to-AC N-level converters is configured to convert the second DC voltage to an AC signal;
- and
- a three-winding transformer coupled downstream from the two or more DC-to-AC N-level converters.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.