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EP-4736316-A1 - DISTRIBUTED INVERTER SYSTEMS FOR BUILDING INTEGRATED PHOTOVOLTAIC POWER GENERATION

EP4736316A1EP 4736316 A1EP4736316 A1EP 4736316A1EP-4736316-A1

Abstract

Various embodiments provide an electrical system. In an example embodiment, the electrical system includes a DC power source, a rapid DC power shutdown protection circuit, AC or DC grid sensing, and DC-to-AC or DC-to-DC power conversion.

Inventors

  • MCDANIEL, HUNTER
  • Bergren, Matthew R.
  • BILLSTRAND, Brian

Assignees

  • Ubiqd Inc.

Dates

Publication Date
20260506
Application Date
20240628

Claims (20)

  1. WHAT IS CLAIMED IS: 1. An electrical system, comprising several electronic components: a DC power source, a rapid DC power shutdown protection circuit, AC or DC grid sensing, and DC to AC or DC to DC power conversion.
  2. 2. The electrical system of claim 1, wherein said DC power source is a building-integrated photovoltaic, including but not limited to a solar window or solar module.
  3. 3. The electrical system of claim 1, wherein said AC grid is accessed via a building’s electrical outlet, from inside or outside of the wall, including by plugging into the wall outlet directly.
  4. 4. The electrical system of claim 1, wherein said DC power source operates between 1 and 50 V.
  5. 5. The electrical system of claim 1, wherein said AC grid operates between 51 and 250 V.
  6. 6. The electrical system of claim 1, wherein said DC power source is a quantum dot luminescent solar concentrator window.
  7. 7. The electrical system of claim 1, wherein said electrical components are printed onto a circuit board, or PCB.
  8. 8. The electrical system of claim 1, wherein said electrical components further includes sensors for monitoring the AC grid phase and frequency.
  9. 9. The electrical system of claim 1, wherein said DC to AC power conversion steps up the voltage of said DC power source to match the voltage of said AC grid.
  10. 10. The electrical system of claim 1, wherein said DC to AC power conversion matches the phase and frequency of said AC grid. 16 LEGAL02/44543140v1
  11. 11. The electrical system of claim 1, wherein said electrical components includes a maximum power point tracking feature for the DC power source.
  12. 12. The electrical system of claim 1, wherein said electrical system further includes a power storage, such as a battery.
  13. 13. The electrical system of claim 1, wherein said electrical system further includes quantum dots.
  14. 14. The electrical system of claim 1, wherein said electrical system can monitor circuits in a building to help diagnose early failure of equipment or appliances.
  15. 15. A grid-integrated photovoltaic array, comprising: a plurality of photovoltaic devices, maximum power point tracking, electrical coupling to the primary AC electrical system in a building, electrical power conditioning of the array output to match the building electrical power characteristics, and a rapid shutdown circuit.
  16. 16. The grid-integrated photovoltaic array of claim 14, wherein said primary AC electrical system is the same system that the wall outlets of the building are connected to.
  17. 17. The grid-integrated photovoltaic array of claim 14, wherein said photovoltaic array is an array of at least two electricity-generating windows.
  18. 18. The grid-integrated photovoltaic array of claim 14, wherein said building is retrofitted or renovated with said photovoltaic array after the building had already been constructed, and said primary AC electrical system is the existing electrical infrastructure of the building prior to retrofit or renovations.
  19. 19. The grid-integrated photovoltaic array of claim 14, wherein said photovoltaic array is an array of at least two electricity-generating windows that incorporate quantum dots. 17 LEGAL02/44543140v1
  20. 20. The electrical coupling of claim 14, wherein said electrical coupling includes a circuit that allows electricity generated from the said grid-integrated photovoltaic array to be distributed to different AC electrical circuits in the building depending on electricity demand. 18 LEGAL02/44543140v1

Description

DISTRIBUTED INVERTER SYSTEMS FOR BUILDING INTEGRATED PHOTOVOLTAIC POWER GENERATION CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application claims priority to U.S. Application No.63/511,238, filed June 30, 2023, the content of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE The present invention is directed to DC-to-AC power conversion from distributed power generation systems such as solar windows or other building-integrated photovoltaics, and more specifically to low-power DC systems that tap into a buildings existing AC grid in a safe and cost- effective way that enables wider deployment of electrical power systems. BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE Urban areas exhibit the highest energy demand and the fewest opportunities for utilizing renewable energy generation with traditional technologies. Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV) are a potential solution that integrates solar generation into the building envelope. Implementation of BIPV technologies on urban buildings has been challenging due to high initial capital investments, long return on investment periods, high installation costs, and additional balance of systems (BOS) infrastructure required to connect BIPV with the grid. Consequently, soft costs and BOS associated with PV installation on residential and commercial buildings account for more than 70% of the installed cost per watt and the cost per watt is 85% more than utility scale solar. Therefore, a solution is needed to reduce the cost of urban solar to allow for economically competitive, sustainable power generation in order to improve energy efficiency of buildings, reduce emissions, and improve the resilience of energy infrastructure. The present solution is incorporating distributed low power density and low-cost power generation systems that utilize the building’s existing electrical infrastructure. Leveraging these mechanisms for installation has the potential to 1 LEGAL02/44543140v1 reduce initial capital investment, achieve return on investment of less than 5 years and reduce the need for grid scale energy storage and other BOS infrastructure. An objective of the present invention is a distributed inverter system that allows the power produced from a BIPV array to integrate directly into existing building electrical systems. All present solar electrical systems require dedicated circuits to avoid potential overload and are designed to support high power densities on the outside of the building. In one aspect, the present invention consists of a fully integrated max power point tracking solar microinverter that will monitor load on a shared circuit, as well as generated power, and safely use the excess load on those circuits to distribute the generated power to the grid on the shared circuit through the microinverter. Other aspects of the present invention include accurate shared circuit current sensing control logic and switching, limiting allowed power generation, optimization for low power density arrays, IOT connectivity, and installation within a form factor junction box inside the building. In this way the present invention can significantly reduce the electrical system cost, it will provide data on circuit specific energy usage, and generates power for continuous loads at their source reducing the need for additional grid level infrastructure. SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE In one aspect, a system is provided including the present system that consists of a specialized max power point tracking (MPPT) controller designed for one or multiple solar window/BIPV panel inputs with wide voltage and current ratings to provide additional flexibility for a wide variety of different building designs, an AC inverter, and a single-phase current monitoring sensor in series with the shared circuit. Specifically, this MPPT controller system includes a capable microcontroller, current and voltage sensors, as well as a shunt resistor to accurately record the array IV characteristics, a Wi-Fi communications module for IOT connectivity, and a high frequency isolated DC-DC converter with interleaved current. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 2 LEGAL02/44543140v1 Fig.1 shows a diagram of a traditional approach to integrating photovoltaics and the approach to integrating photovoltaics of the present invention. Fig.2 shows a diagram of the inverter system. Fig.3 shows a schematic diagram of the inverter system. Fig.4 shows another schematic diagram of the inverter system. Fig.5 shows a block diagram of a safe operation control logic flow. Fig.6 shows another diagram of safe operation control logic flow. DEFINITIONS AND ABBREVIATIONS The following explanations of terms and abbreviations are provided to better describe the present disclosure and to guide those of ordinary skill in the art in the practice of systems, methodologies and compositions disclosed herein. As used herein, “comprising” means “including”, and the singular form “a” or “an” or “the” include plural r