Fuel cell generation apparatus and a method for starting the same

摘要

A fuel cell generation apparatus including a plurality of fuel cells to be connected in parallel. Each of the fuel cells is connected in parallel with a serial circuit of a starting load and a switch. Each of the parallel circuit thus formed is connected in series with one of second switches, and the serial circuits thus formed are parallelly connected to form the fuel cell generation apparatus which is connected to a load. The starting loads are closed at the start of the operation of the fuel cell generation apparatus to drop the output voltages of the fuel cells to a voltage lower than a minimum voltage in no-load open-circuit voltages of the fuel cells. The fuel cell generation apparatus is started by closing the first switches, and then closing the second switches, and finally opening the first switches. This facilitates implementing a large capacity fuel cell generation apparatus whose efficiency is improved by eliminating diodes for preventing reverse currents from flowing.