SOLAR PANEL ARCHITECTURE

A solar power plant 5 comprises a plurality of photovoltaic panels 10 and a plurality of power conditioning units 15 adapted to collect DC power at a panel voltage from the photovoltaic panels 10. The power conditioning units 15 pass the DC power via an intermediate power transfer line 20 to a common inverter unit 30 which converts the DC power into AC power for output. Energy storage units 70 may be included with the photovoltaic panels 10 to selectively store and release energy depending on the concurrent AC power demand and level of DC power being collected from the photovoltaic panels 10. The inverter circuits 80-1, 80-2, 80-3 may have different efficiency characteristics with respect to the amount of power being converted. The apparatus may be used to provide a steady AC power output during periods of low DC power collection.