Connor James Reece
Electrical engineering
Hometown: Fountain Hills, Arizona, United States
Graduation date: Spring 2026
MORE | Summer 2023
Buck-Derived Active Buffer-Based Energy Storage System with Enhanced Reliability for Solar Microinverter
This work is aimed toward improving equipment reliability and power density of critical solar photovoltaic microinverter technology by replacing old DC link capacitor banks commonly comprised entirely of passive electrolytic capacitors (ECs), which detriment the achievable power density and reliability of the microinverter. These DC link EC banks, however, provide an essential energy storage function necessary for transformation of DC source power to supplied AC power to electric power consumers. To improve upon both fallbacks of traditional DC link EC banks, a suitable technology replacement known as the pulsating power buffer is investigated and optimized for a novel microinverter system.
Mentor: Ayan Mallik
Sponsored project | Summer 2023
Connor Reece’s MORE project is sponsored by W. L. Gore & Associates.
W. L. Gore & Associates is a uniquely creative, product leadership enterprise that has served a variety of global markets for 60 years, and provides innovative solutions that its associates stand behind. Gore established funds to support undergraduate students in the Fulton Undergraduate Research Initiative program and graduate students in the Master’s Opportunity for Research in Engineering program, and values student-driven research and developing relationships with students in the programs.