Every solar-plus-storage system has to answer a wiring question: how do the panels, the battery, and the load share power? US20210135577A1, published May 6, 2021, claims one answer — a multi-port DC/DC converter that gives each asset its own port on a common DC bus.
The CPC tags are tight: H02M 3/1584 (DC-DC conversion with multiple outputs) and H02M 1/14 (means for reducing ripple). This is a topology patent — it is about the architecture of the converter, the arrangement of ports and switches that lets power flow between several DC sources and sinks through one shared stage.
Why this maps to the grid: DC-coupled solar-plus-storage is increasingly preferred because it avoids converting DC to AC and back when charging a battery from panels. A multi-port converter is the enabling component — it lets the array charge the battery directly on the DC side and serve the load or the grid through a single inversion. Fewer conversions means fewer losses and lower cost.
The patent claims a topology, not a product or a deployment. It does not fence off DC-coupled storage as a concept — many topologies achieve multi-port conversion. It fences off one arrangement, and its value depends on whether that arrangement is more efficient or cheaper than the alternatives.
From patent to grid: the unglamorous component IP — converter topologies, port arrangements, ripple reduction — is what actually determines the cost and efficiency of the solar-plus-storage systems clearing interconnection queues. A 2021 multi-port converter publication is a small upstream artifact of the DC-coupling trend now dominant in new installations.