This was the critical first step to economic viability which consisted of the four corners of reliability, cost, efficiency and operation at high temperatures. At that time, the other corners were met by the simplicity of the design, redundancy and construction techniques.

With skilful implementation, the Array Converter topology had the potential to be the best in class in each of its four corners.

In 2008 when I filed the first of the patents and incorporated the company, the principle was to chop the unrefined power from a solar panel into refined, short pulses which could be stored in a magnetic field.

These pulses of current were emitted into the utility grid at a rate (carrier) just above human hearing. The pulses passed through an inductor capacitor filter to give them an electrically quiet shape and avoid radio interference. Since resistors consume power, they were not used in the power pathway of the Array Converter at that time. The original modulation system was Pulse Amplitude Modulation Constant Current (PAMCC).

To further refine the grid power, each Array Converter was set to emit its series of pulses at the same rate but slightly shifted in time (phase) from one another. As the carriers combined out of phase on the utility grid, they canceled each other out leaving only the final, pure waveform.

The effect is like a choir of identical singers, each singing the same note on key. The resulting sound is a clear pure tone.

For those doing diligence on this as a power deal, an array of Array Converters is equivalent to a very large distributed inverter. Each solar panel/array converter being a component part of the larger inverter.

The conductor for this choir is the utility grid whose frequency forms the clock and whose shape the tone.

What you just read is a summary of what is in my patents and published patent applications. To read more, go to the uspto.gov and look me up, track down the company (whatever they are calling it this week) or look me up on linkedin.

Cheers,
Kent Kernahan