Autoinspection and Permitting With a PV Utility Interface (PUI) for Residential Plug-and-Play Solar Photovoltaic Unit

Renewable energy resources are becoming popular with mass adoption in residential and commercial applications because of gradual cost reduction along with continuous technical advancements. Photovoltaic (PV) energy is one of the biggest players of renewable energy installations although soft costs remain as the major barrier for higher penetration of PV systems. To address the cost challenges, a plug-and-play (PnP) system for a quick, low-cost installation is proposed and designed. The method is much less invasive and labor intensive than the traditional installation methods. This paper presents the PnP electrical system, with emphasis on the controls, software, and system-level communications within the system. A PV utility interface circuit has been developed for automated electrical safety checks and authentication for the PnP PV system. A data protocol has been used to deal with the master-slave controller setup in the system. This research has the potential to reduce the residential PV system price by $0.6/W.