Smart Junction Box for Photovoltaic Systems

摘要

A “smart” junction box for photovoltaic systems provides electrical measurements of strings of photovoltaic cells to detect premature photovoltaic cell degradation, bypass diode failure, and arcing, and report the same to a central location and/or to provide for automatic disconnection of a given string of photovoltaic cells. The smart junction box also provides general reporting of electrical characteristics to the central system and allows disconnection by command from the central system.

主权项

1. A smart junction box for series connected photovoltaic arrays providing bypass diodes, the smart junction box comprising:
a housing providing terminals receiving electrical connections to series connected photovoltaic units at multiple electrical junctions between the series connected photo voltaic units as joined by bypass diodes; a remote communication circuit for communicating with a central station; I/O circuitry communicating with the terminals to digitize electrical measurements of electrical junctions; and a processor receiving the digitized electrical measurements and executing a stored program to evaluate a history of electrical measurements to detect at least one of electrical damage to a photovoltaic unit or a bypass diode to provide a signal through the remote communication circuit to the central station. {A specific cell monitoring technique}