Patent application number | Description | Published |
20120004780 | INTEGRATED REMOTELY CONTROLLED PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEM - Various methods and apparatus are described for an integrated remotely controlled photovoltaic system having a number of components. A central backend server management system is configured to facilitate management of two or more solar arrays at a remote site from a client device connected over a public wide area network (WAN). An integrated electronics housing contains multiple circuits, including power generation inverter circuits and solar array motion control circuits for one or more PhotoVoltaic (PV) solar arrays at the remote site. The multiple circuits cohesively exist in the integrated electronics housing and actually perform better because of the interconnectivity. The communication circuitry within the integrated electronics housing is configured to establish secure communications over the WAN with the central backend server management system. The integrated electronics housing acts as the local system control point for the first solar array. | 01-05-2012 |
20120154162 | USE OF MANUFACTURING INFORMATION DURING THE OPERATION OF A CONCENTRATED PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEM - Storing manufacturing data in a relational database associated with a central backend management system. A plurality of concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) arrays are located at a remote solar site. Each of the CPV arrays and the components making up that CPV array is associated with its set of manufacturing data. The manufacturing data of the CPV arrays and the components making up that CPV array includes serial number information of the components of the CPV arrays and measured manufacturing data for those components, which allows a calculation of at least projected performance information of the CPV array during an actual operation of that CPV array at the remote solar site. Comparing the projected performance information of the CPV array to the actual performance information during the actual operation of that CPV array at the solar site. | 06-21-2012 |
20120158197 | WIRELESS LOCAL AREA NETWORK FOR A CONCENTRATED PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEM - Various methods and apparatus are described for a photovoltaic system. In an embodiment, a method for performing auto-configuration of a concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) array installed in a solar site having multiple CPV arrays. The central backend management system sends auto-configuration files over the Internet to each of the two-axis tracking mechanisms installed at the solar site based upon the GPS coordinates of each of the two-axis tracking mechanisms and that two-axis tracking mechanism's relative position in the layout of the two-axis tracking mechanisms located at the solar site. | 06-21-2012 |
20120158200 | INTEGRATED PERFORMANCE MONITORING FOR A CONCENTRATED PHOTOVOLTAIC (CPV) SYSTEM - A plurality of concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) arrays located at a solar site may be operated and communicate with a central backend management system over a public wide area network. Each of the CPV arrays is associated with a different system control point (SCP). Each SCP includes circuitry with test points for performance monitoring of at least 1) an electrical power generating circuitry that generates alternating current (AC) voltage output and 2) a tracker motion control circuit to control a position of the CPV array for that SCP, and 1) configured logic, 2) resident software applications, or 3) any combination of both in the SCP is configured to collect the performance monitoring information and store in a memory of the SCP. The information from the circuitry with test points for performance monitoring is communicated to the central backend management system over the public wide area network. | 06-21-2012 |
20120158205 | SCALABLE BACKEND MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR REMOTELY OPERATING ONE OR MORE PHOTOVOLTAIC GENERATION FACILITIES - A central backend management system to manage two or more solar sites each having a plurality of concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) arrays. frontend application servers in the management system are configured to 1) provide web hosting of web pages, 2) generate and present user interfaces to each client device in communication with the frontend application servers in order to view information of components of the CPV arrays and to issue commands to control operations of the components of the CPV arrays. Each of the CPV arrays is associated with a different system control point, which are communicatively connected to the central backend management system over a wide area network (WAN) using a secured channel. | 06-21-2012 |
20120158362 | REMOTE ANGLE MAPPING PROCESS FOR A CPV ARRAY - Angle mapping logic for a solar array of a two-axis tracker mechanism for the concentrated photovoltaic system is configured to facilitate a remotely initiated angle mapping process and then remotely diagnose movement and other pointing errors in the solar array on the two-axis solar tracker mechanism. Deviations in power produced in a set of test points of the angle mapping process and shapes of the plotted information provide diagnostics to indicate error locations and types of pointing errors present in the equipment in the solar array and in the two-axis tracker mechanism. Information from the angle mapping process is sent over a network to a remote server for analysis. The test can be initiated from the remote server. | 06-21-2012 |
20120159596 | BROWSER-BASED BACK-END MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR A CONCENTRATED PHOTOVOLTAIC (CPV) SYSTEM - Each of the CPV arrays at a solar site is coupled with a different system control point (SCP) to be communicatively connected to a central backend management system associated with that solar site. The management system is configured to present a plurality of user interfaces via the Internet to a browser of a user's client device to enable the user to navigate to and then 1) view information for various components and 2) send a command to perform an action for various components for the various components associated with the CPV arrays. The plurality of user interfaces presented to the user based on the management system having authenticated the user as being allowed to view the information related to the CPV array. | 06-21-2012 |
20120245745 | USER INTERFACE FOR A MOBILE COMPUTING DEVICE - An energy-management application may be resident on a mobile computing device to access information and control components associated with one or more solar generation sites. A graphic user interface presents multiple pages to both 1) monitor information regarding the solar generation sites and 2) control components within the solar generation sites from the mobile computing device. The application detects as an input on a currently displayed page from the sequence of multiple pages both a rate and a pattern of finger swipe gestures made on the currently displayed page. The application, in response to detection of both the rate and pattern of the finger gestures on the touch screen display, performs at least one of 1) activation of one or more of the data items, one or more of the links, or one or more of the objects, and 2) navigation to another page in the sequence of pages. | 09-27-2012 |