Sunsine300 AC Module: Annual Report, 25 July 1995 - 31 December 1996

Under Photovoltaic Manufacturing Technology (PVMaT) 4A1, Ascension Technology (AT) is developing the SunSine300 AC PV module. AT's goals in this project are to meet UL 1741, obtain FCC Class B verification, complete the AC module system design and development, advance the inverter design, design for manufacture, design for reliability, design for serviceability, and demonstrate commercializationthrough production and sale of about 100 units. To meet these goals, AT corrected a number of deficiencies identified by UL's preliminary investigation before proceeding to the full UL investigation; a SunSine300 prototype was tested and found to comply with FCC Class B requirements; AT designed a complete line of balance-of-systems hardware for the SunSine300; AT's design and performanceadvancements include accomplishing a total harmonic distortion drop from 5% to 2%, devising a method to eliminate false detection of zero crossings that could damage the inverter, improvinmg anti-islanding with the addition of AT's proprietary ZEBRA technique, and redesigning the enclosure for thermal performance, manufacturability, and UL and FCC approval; performing extensive testing in Phase2 to discover failure modes and susceptibility to aging; and designing the SunSine300 to be easily and safely serviced.