Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd.

Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.

Souichi Sakai

Yukinori Kuwano

Shoichi Nakano

Toshiya Iwasaki

Yasuo Okuda

Takeshi Nakashima

Masaru Yamano

Hayato Ikebe

Hiroshi Kawada

Yohei Yamada

Yasuo Kishi

Hirotsugu Murashima

Ryuzo Hagihara

Youichiro Nishikawa

Tsugufumi Matsuoka

Hiroyuki Taniguchi

Atsuo Mizukami

Hirosato Yagi

Ken Yamada

Takuji Sugata

Isao Nagaoka

Hitoshi Katoh

Nobuhiro Okuda

To provide a power supply system equipped with a storage battery assembly including a plurality of storage battery control units, the power supply system being configured such that a group of the storage battery control units, which are selected from the storage battery control units, and which have output voltages within a predetermined voltage range, are first connected to the parallel connection line, and such that the voltage range is set so as to maximize the number of the storage battery control units having output voltages within the voltage range.

Power supply system

The method of controlling a battery storing electric power generated by a power generator generating electric power using renewable energy comprises detecting an amount of electric power generated by the power generator at a first time and a second time that is prior to the first time; computing a rate of increase or decrease of the amount of electric power between the first time and the second time; computing a target output value for the electric power to be supplied to an electric power transmission system based on the rate, and supplying to the electric power transmission system electric power corresponding to the target output value from at least one of the power generator and the battery.

Method of controlling a battery, computer readable recording medium, electric power generation system and device controlling a battery

A master controller of a battery charge and discharge control apparatus is a device performing charge and discharge control on a group of a predetermined number of battery arrays, the battery arrays being connected together in parallel. The master controller acquires an entire charge or discharge instruction intended for the entire battery array group, starts charging or discharging each of the battery arrays at a uniform charge or discharge power value, acquires a charge or discharge status of each of the battery arrays after the beginning of the charge or discharge and compares the charge or discharge status with a predetermined charge or discharge set value for the entire battery array group, and changes the charge or discharge power value of each of the battery arrays based on a result of the comparison.

Battery charge and discharge control apparatus and method for controlling battery charge and discharge

Provided is a power management system capable of controlling charge and discharge of storage batteries according to power requirement of load even when handling electric power of large scale. A system controller receives load-related information data including the power requirement of load and storage battery-related information data including a state of a storage battery assembly including multiple storage batteries and creates an overall charge-discharge control instruction for the entire power management system based on the load-related information data and the storage battery-related information data. A hierarchical charge-discharge control apparatus receives the overall charge-discharge control instruction from the system controller and performs charge-discharge control of the multiple storage batteries, classified into hierarchical levels, on a hierarchical level basis.

Power management system

A charge/discharge control device capable of increasing the lifetime of a storage portion while suppressing effects of fluctuation in power generated by a power generator on a power grid is provided. This charge/discharge control device is so formed as to start charge/discharge control of the storage portion if an amount of change in power detected by a power detection portion detecting power passing through a prescribed portion of a line between the power generator and the power grid is at least a prescribed amount of change when the detected power changes from first power to second power while the detected power does not return to power in the vicinity of the first power from the second power within a first period from a time point when the detected power changes from the first power to the second power.

Charge/discharge control device and power generation system

A transparent conductive film is formed on a glass substrate covering substantially its entire surface area and this transparent conductive film is divided into a plurality of transparent conductive parts per each photoelectric converting region. The photoelectric converting region is of a nearly rectangular shape, and accordingly, in order to divide the transparent conductive film into respective transparent conductive film parts, a laser beam is irradiated along all longitudinal and lateral sides of the rectangle. Thereby, the transparent conductive film parts corresponding to the photoelectric converting regions are formed as island regions. Semiconductor film parts are formed on the transparent conductive film parts divided into island regions corresponding to respective photoelectric converting regions and subsequently aluminum film parts are formed on these semiconductor film parts. Transparent conductive film parts are electrically connected to aluminum film parts of adjacent photoelectric converting regions. Thus, a photovoltaic device is manufactured wherein a plurality of photoelectric converting regions are formed on the substrate and respective photoelectric converting regions are connected in a series fashion.

Photovoltaic device

Method of manufacturing photovoltaic device

A method of making a semiconductor film on a substrate having a non-flat surface, by placing the substrate in a reaction chamber including at least a pair of discharge electrodes, an inlet of a reaction gas for producing a desired semiconductor film, and an outlet for reduced pressure, and performing a discharge in the presence of said reacrion gas for producing said semiconductor film, while arranging said non-flat surface of said substrate outside a plasma region formed between said discharge electrodes and further locating said non-flat surface substantially in a vertical direction with respect to electrode surfaces of said discharge electrodes, thereby semiconductor film being directly and uniformly deposited on said non-flat surface of said substrate, which is of worth in the production of, e.g., roofing tile-shaped photovoltaic devices.

Method of making semiconductor film

A method of manufacturing a photovoltaic device having a plurality of a photoelectric converting regions formed on an insulating surface of a substrate electrically connected in series, comprises the steps of dividing a first large area electrode layer on an insulating surface of a substrate into a plurality of first electrode layer portions corresponding to a plurality of photoelectric converting regions, depositing in succession a film-like photoelectric semiconductor layer and a second electrode layer lying continuously on the divided first electrode layers, and removing portions of the photoelectric semiconductor layer and the second electrode layer formed continuously to divide them into a plurality of portions corresponding to the plurality of the photoelectric converting regions.

Photovoltaic device and its manufacturing method

Mutually spaced apart TCO film portions are formed on a glass substrate. An amorphous silicon film of PIN junction type is formed to cover these TCO film portions, and an aluminum film is formed thereon. The aluminum film in the vicinity of the gap between adjacent TCO film portions is removed by means of a laser beam, and the amorphous silicon film is removed by reactive plasma etching using the aluminum film as a mask to thereby expose portions of the TCO film. An aluminum-titanium film is formed over the aluminum film and the exposed portions of the TCO film. The aluminum-titanium film is separated by means of a laser beam to form a plurality of photoelectric converting regions. The photoelectric converting regions thus formed on the glass substrate are connected in series.

Growing community of inventors

Moriguchi, Japan

Souichi Sakai