Patent ID: 8901860

Claim:
A photovoltaic apparatus comprising: a photovoltaic module that includes a plurality of series portions coupled in parallel, the series portion including a plurality of photovoltaic elements coupled in series, the photovoltaic elements coupled in a same straight row of the plurality of series portions being coupled parallel to one another; and a tracking control device configured to perform a maximum power point tracking control on an output of the photovoltaic module, wherein the photovoltaic module includes a temperature sensor configured to detect a real panel temperature when the photovoltaic module is operating, wherein the tracking control device includes: a storage unit where a plurality of panel temperature-output correlation characteristics are registered corresponding to the panel temperature, the panel temperature-output correlation characteristic preliminarily specifying a correlation relationship between the panel temperature and a characteristic of the output in the photovoltaic module; an output characteristic selecting unit configured to: extract one of the panel temperature-output correlation characteristics corresponding to the real panel temperature among the plurality of panel temperature-output correlation characteristics as a virtual panel temperature-output correlation characteristic; and select a maximum power operating voltage corresponding to a maximum output in the virtual panel temperature-output correlation characteristic; and a search start setting unit configured to extract an electric power of the photovoltaic module when a voltage of the photovoltaic module is set to a search start voltage higher than the maximum power operating voltage, as a search electric power when a search is started, wherein the tracking control device is configured to: start a search using the search start voltage and the search electric power when the search is started as references; and extract a maximum power point of the photovoltaic module at the real panel temperature.