| Abstract: | A PV system composed of sub-arrays, each having a group of PV cells that
are electrically connected to each other. A power management circuit for
each sub-array has a communications interface and serves to connect or
disconnect the sub-array to a programmable power grid. The power grid has
bus rows and bus columns. A bus management circuit is positioned at a
respective junction of a bus column and a bus row and is programmable
through its communication interface to connect or disconnect a power path
in the grid. As a result, selected sub-arrays are connected by selected
power paths to be in parallel so as to produce a low system voltage, and,
alternately in series so as to produce a high system voltage that is
greater than the low voltage by at least a factor of ten. |