Clean Energy Patent Growth Index

CLEAN ENERGY PATENT GROWTH INDEX 2nd Quarter 2010

The CLEAN ENERGY PATENT GROWTH INDEX (CEPGI), published quarterly by the Cleantech Group at Heslin Rothenberg Farley & Mesiti P.C. provides an indication of the trend of innovative activity in the Clean Energy sector from 2002 to the present. Results from the second quarter of 2010 reveal the CEPGI to have a value of 437 granted U.S. patents which is the highest quarterly value since the tracking of the CEPGI began, along with being up 58 (over 15 percent) from the first quarter and up almost 60 percent from a value of 274 in the second quarter of 2009.

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The granting of patents by the United States Patent and Trademark (PTO) is often cited as a measure of the inventive activity and evidence of the effectiveness of research & development investments. Patents are considered to be such an indicator, because to be awarded a patent, it requires not only the efforts of inventors to develop new and non-obvious innovations but also successful handling by patent counsel to shepherd a patent application through the PTO. Thus, the granting of a patent is an indicator that efforts at innovation have been successful and that an innovation had enough perceived value to justify the time and expense in procuring the patent.

The CEPGI (shown below quarterly) tracks the granting of U.S. patents for the following sub-components: Solar, Wind, Hybrid/electric vehicles, Fuel Cells, Hydroelectric, Tidal/wave, Geothermal, Biomass/biofuels and other clean renewable energy.

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The components breakdown of the CEPGI shows fuel cells, solar and wind at record levels while hybrid/electric vehicle patents fell. Fuel cells were up 40 granted patents relative to the fourth quarter at 248 and continue to dominate the other components of the CEPGI in absolute numbers. Granted solar patents (76) continued to climb topping wind (33) for the third straight quarter defying a long history of losses to wind prior. Solar patents were up 9 compared to the first quarter of 2010 and up 40 relative the second quarter of 2009. Wind patents were up 20 relative to the first quarter and up 12 compared to a year prior. Hybrid/electric vehicle patents (33) were down 17 from the first quarter to return to fourth quarter 2009 levels and were up 13 over the second quarter of 2009. Biofuel patents (12) were down 1 from the first quarter and down 1 over a year prior.

Honda took the quarterly Clean Energy Patent crown and was pursued by the same three contenders from the first quarter. Honda led the others for the second consecutive quarter primarily based on its fuel cell (28) patents along with three solar and two hybrid/electric vehicle patents. GM fell further behind Honda this quarter at 24 granted clean energy patents dominated by fuel cells at 22, supplemented by two hybrid/electric vehicle patents. Samsung came in third for the second straight time based on fuel cell patents (22) and one solar energy patent. Toyota followed at 17 patents (12 fuel cell, 5 hybrid/electric vehicle) while Ford fell from fifth in the last quarter to a tie for 11th place. GE replaced Ford in the 5th spot based on its strength in wind patents (10) along with 2 fuel cell and 1 solar patent. Panasonic was next with twelve fuel cell patents while Nissan and Hitachi tied for seventh place with 8 clean energy patents, both having fuel cell patents (Nissan 5, Hitachi 6), Nissan with three hybrid/electric vehicle patents and Hitachi two wind patents. Dupont joined the top ten for the first time with two fuel cell patents and four solar patents. Bloom Energy joined the leaders in 11th place with 5 fuel cell patents which added to a big 2009 in which 8 such patents accrued to this high fuel cell company which seemed to appear out of nowhere last year. Electric automaker Telsa, another Cleantech pioneer, tied Bloom with 5 hybrid/electric vehicle patents, adding to its 4 patents of this type in 2009, while Mitsubishi had 5 wind and Ford had 1 fuel cell and 4 hybrid/electric vehicle patents.

As depicted below in the geographic charts, Japan again led the non-U.S. holders of U.S. clean energy patents and the individual U.S. states with 121, up 25 over the first quarter, and up 46 over the same period in 2009, to again claim the geographical clean energy patent crown. California was second with 50 granted Clean Energy patents, up 12 over the first quarter and up 11 over the second quarter of 2009. Korea jumped to third place with 37 granted clean energy patents, up 6 over the first quarter and up 22 over a year prior. Michigan had 35 granted patents, down 12 over the first quarter, and up 12 over the same period a year ago. Germany was again in fifth place and again had 29 patents as in the first quarter, and was up 6 patents over a year ago. New York had 22 patents, which is up 11 over the first quarter and up 7 over the same period of 2009. Connecticut had 6 granted clean energy patents, up 1 from the first quarter, and even with the second quarter of 2009. Canada also had 6 patents, up 1 from the first quarter results, and down 1 over the second quarter of last year. Other notables for the second quarter include Massachusetts with 8 patents and Illinois and Delaware with 7. The United States as a whole had 188 granted clean energy patents in the second quarter, up 8 from last quarter and up 70 from the second quarter of last year.

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Trend lines by quarter through the second quarter of 2010 for the CEPGI and for each of the CEPGI components are depicted below:

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CEPGI yearly totals through 2009 are depicted below:

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The CEPGI is updated quarterly and is occasionally supplemented with related articles posted on www.cleanenergypatentgrowthindex.com or http://www.cepgi.com/

Please contact us at info@cleanenergypatentgrowthindex.com if you have any questions or would like us to email you when we have updated this page or the CEPGI.

CLEAN ENERGY PATENT GROWTH INDEX.COM

Heslin Rothenberg Farley & Mesiti P.C.

cleantechintellectualproperty.com

© 2010 Heslin Rothenberg Farley & Mesiti P.C. 

CLEAN ENERGY PATENT GROWTH INDEX - Shine-On Solar Edition Fall 2010

The Shine On Solar edition of the CLEAN ENERGY PATENT GROWTH INDEX (CEPGI), published by the Cleantech Group at Heslin Rothenberg Farley & Mesiti P.C. provides an indication of the trend of innovative activity in the Solar energy sector. Results from 2009 and early 2010 reveal Solar patents to be second only to Fuel Cell patents in the Clean Energy area. Solar Photovoltaic patents spiked in 2009 to a best showing since 2003 with third generation solar PV patents topping the other technologies. Samsung led the other Solar PV contenders during this period pushing aside overall PV leader Canon. Solar thermal patents were granted to 22 separate entities with none even receiving two and Wal-mart Stores being one of the 22.

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The Shine On Solar edition analyzes the solar sector and illustrates where patents are being granted within the solar arena. This edition of our Shine On Solar edition analyzes solar energy trends in general with an emphasis on solar patenting trends during 2009 and early 2010.

As depicted below, solar technology patents continued a dramatic rise in fits and starts through 2009 to reach a record high in the first quarter of 2010 after hitting a record low in the third quarter of 2008.

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Solar patents in the first quarter of 2010 reached a level second only to Fuel Cell patents which had led the other sectors since the beginning of 2002. Solar patents reached and exceeded the level of wind patents in 2009 which had been in second place to fuel cell patents in the CEPGI since 2006 as per the trends in the quarterly components of the CEPGI below:

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As presented in our previous article (located here) we have subdivided the solar patents uncovered into Solar thermal and Solar PV categories, along with a hybrid designation. Solar thermal is further divided into technologies directly using collected thermal energy and those that do so indirectly (e.g., for the generation of electricity).

Solar PV includes the following subsectors:
1 first generation (e.g.,silicon based) PV
2. second generation (e.g., thin film) PV
3. third generation (dye-sensitized, quantum dots, nano-modified, organic) PV
4. PV enhancement (e.g., multi-junction, CPV, anti-reflective coatings)
5. Enabling technologies (e.g., racking systems, power conversion, heat sinks, bypass diodes, sun tracking)
6. PV applications (e.g., use of PV technology in a product)

Solar hybrid systems may use both solar thermal and photovoltaic technologies, or one of these solar technologies combined with another type of generation process (wind, hydro, etc.)

Thermal vs. Photovoltaic

As depicted below on an annual basis, granted patents in photovoltaic technology increased dramatically to 146 up 60 in 2009 over the prior year after being relative flat for the previous four years. In contrast solar thermal patents stayed relatively constant up five relative to 2008.

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According to the quarterly graph below, Solar PV jumped 60 in the first quarter of 2010 alone while solar thermal reached almost half its total for the entire prior year reaching 7 solar thermal patents in the first quarter. Comparing the solar energy patent graph (far above) as a whole to the solar thermal vs. solar PV graph, the entire solar technology field closely follows the photovoltaic trends without much pull from the thermal technology trends.

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The Thermal Technologies

As depicted below, 2009 and the first quarter of 2010 brought a marked increase in solar thermal direct technology patents. In fact the direct patents even exceeded those of the indirect patents in the fourth quarter of last year for the first time since the second quarter of 2007. Generally speaking, indirect solar technology (e.g., the conversion of thermal energy into mechanical or electrical energy) has consistently seen more patents and thus innovation than its direct counterpart.

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In 2009 and early 2010 United Technologies and Mario Rabinowitz (scientist and CEO of Armor Research) each received a solar thermal indirect patent while Schott AG was granted a direct solar thermal patent. The rest of the granted solar thermal patents during this period were granted to 19 separate entities with each receiving one patent. None are household names with the notable exception of Wal-mart Stores (for a air heating system). Five of the 22 grantees during this period are non-U.S. based with the rest being located in California, Massachusetts, Florida, Connecticut, Michigan, Texas, Louisiana, and Washington.

Since 2002, as depicted in the chart below, the top 10 patent owners in the Solar Thermal area is dominated by Boeing (14), which has patents directed to indirect solar thermal technologies including aspects of generating electricity via the heating of fluids and solar molten salt technologies. In second place Mario Rabinowitz holds 7 patents with 6 directed to indirect technologies. United Technologies tied for second with 7 patents in the indirect area relating to the heating of fluids via solar thermal to create electricity. Schott’s patents are divided two to one in favor of indirect technology. The addition of one patent to Shott’s portfolio put it in the top four, tied with The Sun Trust LLC. In contrast to Solar PV, and many other clean energy technologies, the absolute number of solar thermal patents is low and the concentration in the top 10 patent holders is not very high relative to the total number (172) of patents in this area. Of the patents granted since 2002 in the solar thermal area, it is interesting that the top three solar thermal patent owners account for only 28 (or 16 percent) of the patents with the rest of solar thermal patent owners owning only 3 or less patents each.

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As will also be evident, the top holders of U.S. solar thermal patents are U.S. entities except for Norio Akamatsu, the holder of 2 patents, and Schott AG of Germany.

The Three Generations of Photovoltaic

As depicted in the graphs below, third generation technologies led the others in 2009 and early 2010 with 32 granted patents. Second generation solar followed with 25 patents with first generation technologies trailing behind at 16. Third and Second generation technologies are trending upwardly in the patent sense while first generation technologies appear to be headed downwardly after a highpoint in 2008.

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Additional PV Technology

As depicted below, granted patents for PV Enhancement technologies spiked considerably since 2009 and set a record in the first quarter of 2010. Enabling PV technology also was at a record high in the first quarter and in 2009 reached levels not seen since 2004. Meanwhile the use of PV in applications continued it gradual sinuous rise.

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As shown in the chart below, Canon is far and away the leader in Solar PV patents with over twice the number of patents held by Sharp, its closest competitor. However, over the last five months tracked the leader was Samsung with 5 patents followed by four entities tied for second place with 4 patents including Canon, Sharp, Emcore and Mario Rabinowitz. Other notables recently granted Solar PV patents include Sunpower (3), Boeing (2), Honda (2), Konarka (1) and Sanyo (1).

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Relative to total granted solar PV patents, Canon has patents in almost all PV categories, led by enabling (61), second generation (19), and first generation (9) technology patents. Sharp spreads its patents out among various subcategories including enabling (16), first (6), second (8), third (7) and enhancement (5). Kanegafuchi (13), Boeing (9), and Sanyo (10) also include large numbers of patents in enabling technologies. Mario Rabinowitz has concentrated his efforts in solar enhancement technologies with 14 (up 1 in 2009 and early 2010) of such patents. Sunpower has concentrated on first generation PV technologies with 11patents in this area, up 1 in 2009 and early 2010. Emcore has 5 patents in PV enhancement and 6 in enabling technologies. Konarka has all its patents (11, up 1 in 2009 and early 2010) in third generation technologies. Samsung has 8 of its 10 patents in 1st and 3rd generation technologies. Nanosolar has 7 of 9 patents in third generation technologies. Outside the top 11patent owners depicted above, BP has half its 8 patents in second generation technologies while GE has 5 of its 8 in third generation PV patents. Honda has its patents spread through the solar technologies with the most (3 of 10) in first generation technology. TDK has most of its 8 patents in second generation and enabling technologies.

Of the top 11 PV patent holders, 5 are based in Japan while the rest are based in the U.S. However, as is evident from the chart, Japanese patent holders dominate the top 11 in absolute numbers of patents. In fact, the top three patent holders, all from Japan, hold over 16 percent of all PV patents.

Hybrid Systems

As depicted below, patents in hybrid technologies have hovered in very low numbers during the tracking period.

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Please contact us at info@cleanenergypatentgrowthindex.com if you have any questions or would like us to email you when we have updated this page or the CEPGI.

Shine On Solar Patents.com

CLEAN ENERGY PATENT GROWTH INDEX.COM

Heslin Rothenberg Farley & Mesiti P.C.

cleantechintellectualproperty.com

© 2010 Heslin Rothenberg Farley & Mesiti P.C.