Not Sure What This Is Called...?

[rs14smith]

Hey,

My teacher wanted me to find information about a device that allows solar panel arrays to continue to produce efficient power even while one solar panel was covered up or when there are a lot of clouds in the sky. At first he referred to it as a energy management system, but Google did not give me any successful results, and I believe he also called it some kind of linear...energy booster or something similar.

Does anyone here have an idea of what he may be talking about?

Thanks

 

[Grossel]

It definitely need a battery or sort of.

Is it a stand alone device or is it meant to be connected to power grid?

Try something like "Energy backup"

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

Reverse biasing the arrays is the big concern, so series diodes are added. The inverters are designed to have a range of open circuit voltage in which they will start.

 

[Grossel]

Reverse biasing the arrays is the big concern, so series diodes are added. The inverters are designed to have a range of open circuit voltage in which they will start.

This isn't anything about keeping things simple and stupid, is it?

We don't know exactly what solution OP is talking about. The simplest way to do this I can think about must be using a comparator, a relay and a light censor to determine what way power will flow. This of course assume only DC. (had to omit a couple of components to keep it dead simple).

 

[RMMM]

MPPT.

Maximum Power Point Tracking.

This is likely what your teacher is talking about.

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

true. We don't know what the OP is talking about, but one diode per series connected string is pretty simple.

Some bozo put a solar array on a demonstration house and it NEVER worked. They never could figure out why. When I had to design the instrumentation for a Demand Side Management study which was published, I found out why. There were some dumb looks on some people's faces. the inverter wasn't sized properly for the array configuration. Cool project. I only did the design and selection of components.

 

[ronv]

Maybe a boost regulator to increase the available voltage to the level needed to still charge the battery at lower power.

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

I went to a seminar about Megawatt solar plants and one of the things discussed was
power factor control at the point of injection into the grid. The array could be generating no voltage, but is able to control the power factor.

 

[SABorn]

As RMMM said the device is a MPPT (Maximum Power Point Tracking.)

Very common in solar instalations now days.

There is always the diode in every solar panel made these days so it would not be even worth considering the simple diode, as it is a standard item.

Pete.

 

[colin55]

If you want to maintain output when one panel is shaded, the best approach is to place the panels in parallel.
It all depends on the size of the system, the voltage of the panels and the input voltage of the inverter and/or the battery back-up.

 

[RCinFLA]

Maybe a microinverter on each panel.

**broken link removed**

 

[rs14smith]

Nah this thread is way old, I should of updated it. The device he was talking about was a Linear Current Booster such as this one here: https://www.energybay.org/linear-current-booster-ppt-12-24v-15-amps

 

[Ajazz]

Actually its a common technique used by many for Solar Power Management. It consists of Individual Solar cell or a group of matched solar cell less than 1 Sq.ft area with its own MPPT Buck-Boost Regulator which outputs a fixed DC Voltage under varying light conditions. These are than Series'ed / Paralled for higher output power.