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. In 2011 Solar patents were second only to Fuel Cell patents in the Clean Energy area. Solar Photovoltaic patents jumped in 2011 to a record level of 541 patents (up 60%) with Second Generation Solar PV patents topping the other generations of PV technology. GE took the Solar PV patent crown from Applied Materials, the previous year’s winner, while Canon continues to lead PV patents overall since 2002. Solar Thermal patents in 2011 were granted to 28 separate entities - all with one patent each.
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The Shine On Solar edition analyzes the Solar sector and illustrates where patents are being granted within the Solar arena. As depicted below, Solar technology patents in 2011 continued to shine - jumping almost 180 patents over 2010 totals.
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The chart below depicts trends in the quarterly components of the CEPGI. Solar patents continued to rise in 2011, topping Wind patents by over 80 patents and the other non-Fuel Cell sectors by even more. Fuel Cells continued to top all challengers including Solar in 2011 and - despite falling (44) from the year prior - still topped Solar patents by over 400. Fuel Cell patents have led the other sectors since the beginning of 2002.
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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.).
Solar Overview Recap
In a recap of the general state of Solar patents previously presented here, GE led Solar patent grantees last year with 14 patents. For comparison’s sake, GE also led Wind patents in 2011 with 152 patents. Despite 90 more Solar patents being granted than Wind patents, 14 patents for GE were enough to lead the widely-distributed Solar field. About 300 different entities received Solar patents in 2011 compared to only around half that number receiving Wind patents.
GE jumped from 2 to 14 Solar patents in one year to take the annual Solar patent crown for 2011 from Applied Materials which dropped to a three-way tie for second place in 2011. Applied Materials moved up three places to fifth place in the cumulative rankings since 2002. GE meanwhile made the top ten for cumulative Solar patents for the first time (as depicted below). Dupont and Samsung were the other annual runner ups with 13 patents each in 2011 with Dupont moving up one place relative to 2010 while Samsung jumped 6 patents relative to the prior year. Samsung and Dupont also moved up to eighth and ninth place, respectively, in the overall rankings since 2002.
Sanyo was in third place (6th overall) with 11 Solar patents in 2011 while Miasole made the annual top ten for the first time with nine Solar patents, trailing Sanyo. Sunpower and Atomic Energy Council-Institute of Nuclear Energy each had eight Solar patents with Sunpower remaining in fourth cumulatively as depicted below. Konarka again made the annual top ten tying with LG at 7 patents. Four others rounded out the annual top ten including: Boeing, Skyline, SolFocus, and Schott.
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The U.S. percentage of Solar patents since 2002 rose to 53 percent, up one percent over last year. Japan's share dropped four points to 22 percent, after dropping four last year, while Germany held steady at 6 percent. California's share of the U.S. total since 2002 held at 41 percent while Massachusetts fell two points to 6 percent tying Illinois. New York held at five percent.
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Looking at the 2011 totals for non-U.S. Holders of U.S. Solar patents, Japan led with 76, up 26, followed by Taiwan (41) which leapfrogged last year's second place winner Korea (32). Germany had two fewer Solar patents than Korea. At a significantly lower level of patents, Canada had 8, France 7, Switzerland 5, Italy 5, and Australia 5, while Sweden, Israel, and China had 4 U.S. Solar patents each. Three countries had two U.S. Solar patents while eight other nations had one.
Relative to the U.S. States' showing in 2011, California again dominated the other states with 144 Solar patents, adding 45 over the last year and quadrupling its nearest rival. New York topped previous second place finisher Massachusetts 23 to 13. Delaware (15) also passed Massachusetts which tied Michigan at 13 U.S. Solar energy patents. Illinois was the sixth spot with 12 patents while Colorado followed with 9, both of which repeated their last year's showing. Rounding out the top 10, Pennsylvania had 8 Solar patents, Washington 7 and Florida 7. Nineteen other states had at least one Solar patent.
Thermal vs. Photovoltaic
As indicated, above, we have looked deeper into the various types of Solar patents supplementing the information provided in our CEPGI year-end edition available here. As depicted below on an annual basis, granted patents in Photovoltaic technology had a meteoric rise, jumping about 200 patents (to 541) for the second consecutive year Solar Thermal patents were only up 1 patent after a 15 patent increase in 2010 and a five patent increase the year before.
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According to the quarterly graph below, Solar PV patents jumped to 136 in the first quarter of 2011 up over 70 relative to the year before. Each subsequent quarter also led the corresponding quarter from the previous year. The third quarter of 2011 at 10 patents matched the highest number of Solar Thermal patents since tracking began with this total also having been reached in the fourth quarter of 2010. The Solar PV component clearly dominates the Thermal component of this graph in absolute numbers. In comparing the Solar energy patent graph (far above) as a whole to the graph below, 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, 2011 brought a record year for Solar Thermal Direct technology patents with 15 patents, up 1 over 2010 and 11 over 2009. In fact, the Solar Thermal Direct patents for 2011 were only one patent shy of the number of Solar Thermal Indirect patents (16) . Also, the 8 Solar Thermal Direct patents reached in the third quarter of 2011 was last reached in the first quarter of 2004 and fourth quarter of 2005 in the indirect area. Generally speaking, Indirect Solar Thermal 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, but the trend for 2010 and 2011- with a one and two patent differential respectively - indicates that this dynamic may be changing.
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The Solar Thermal race in 2011 was a 28 way tie - all with one patent each, 15 Direct and 16 Indirect. The Solar Thermal Direct patent holders for 2011 are listed below along with their locations:
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kodeda cleantec AB |
SE |
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The Regents of the University of California; SolFocus, Inc. |
Oakland, CA, US; Mountain View, CA, US |
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RIC Enterprises |
Lake Forest Park, WA, US |
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Palo Alto Research Center Incorporated |
Palo Alto, CA |
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Antonic, James P. |
Ft. Myers, FL, US |
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Lee, Jeffrey |
Taipin, TW |
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Johnson Screens, Inc. |
Houston, TX, US |
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Hanken, Michael J. |
Lakeland, FL, US |
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Hamilton Sundstrand Corporation |
Windsor Locks, CT, US (Rockford, IL, US) |
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ELCAL Research LLC |
Wilmington, DE, US |
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Calentadores de America, S.A: de C.V. |
Mexico City, C.P., MX |
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Butler, Barry Lynn |
Solana Beach, CA, US |
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BrightSource Energy, Inc. |
Oakland, CA, US |
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Atomic Energy Council-Institute of Nuclear Energy |
Lungtan of Taoyuan, TW |
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Natural Energy Resources Company |
Palmer Lake, CO, US |
None of these are household names with US entities outnumbering international entities 11 to 4. The US grantees are dispersed relatively widely.
The Solar Thermal Indirect patent grantees listed below are similary are not well known except for Boeing which is well known for other reasons besides its Solar work.
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Natural Energy Resources Company |
Palmer Lake, CO, US |
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Tsao, Jason |
Torrance, CA, US |
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The Boeing Company |
Chicago, IL / Seattle, WA |
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Research Foundation of the City University of New York |
New York, NY, US |
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Pulsar Energy, Inc. |
Dallas, TX, US |
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Lee, Jeffrey |
Taipin, TW |
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Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd. |
Taipei Hsien, TW |
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Antonic, James P. |
Ft. Myers, FL, US |
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Rabinowitz, Mario |
Redwood City, CA |
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Advanced Solar Power Israel Ltd. |
Tel Aviv, IL |
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Henderson, Richard L. |
Portland, OR, US |
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BrightSource Industries (Israel) Ltd. |
IL |
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CoTherm of America Corporation |
Fort Lauderdale, FL, US |
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Doraisamy, Loganathan |
San Diego, CA, US |
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Guardian Industries Corp.; Centre Luxembourgeois de Recherches pour le Verre et la Ceramique S.A. (C.R.V.C.) |
Auburn Hills, MI, US; LU |
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AC-Sun ApS |
Viby J, DK |
US entities outnumber non-US entities 12 to 4.
If we look at totals since 2002, as depicted in the chart below, the top 10 patent owners in the Solar Thermal area continues to be dominated by Boeing (15) which added just one patent in 2011. Boeing has patents directed to indirect Solar Thermal technologies including aspects of generating electricity via the heating of fluids and solar molten salt technologies. Mario Rabinowitz moved into second place from third and holds 8 patents (up one) with 7 directed to Indirect technologies. United Technologies took the bronze medal with 7 patents in the Indirect area relating to the heating of fluids via solar thermal to create electricity. Fu Zhun Precision and Foxconn remained in fourth place with 5 patents all related to Direct Thermal technologies. Schott tied The Sun Trust LLC with three patents. Schott’s patents are divided two to one in favor of Indirect technology. 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 (213) of patents in this area. Of the patents granted since 2002 in the Solar Thermal area, it is interesting that the top four Solar Thermal patent owners account for only 35 (or less than 17 percent) of the patents with the rest of Solar Thermal patent owners owning only 3 or fewer patents each.
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As will also be evident, the top three holders of U.S. Solar Thermal patents are U.S. entities followed by Fu Zhun Precision Industries of China , Schott of Germany, and the Sun Trust LLC of the U.S.
The Three Generations of Photovoltaic
As depicted in the graph below, Second Generation Solar technologies led the First and Third in 2011, almost doubling the totals of each with 86 granted patents and jumping 34 patents for the second consecutive year. Third Generation Solar followed with 44 patents (up 6) with First Generation technologies trailing behind at 37 patents (up 11) . All three generations of technology jumped significantly over 2010 and appear to be on an upswing from the graph.
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Additional PV Technology
As depicted below, granted patents for Enabling technologies far outshined all others again in 2011 with 216 granted patents (up 97) easily setting an annual record. PV Enhancement technologies jumped 43 patents to 112 in 2011, also an all time high. The use of PV in applications jumped 11 patents in 2011 to 46.
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As depicted below, Canon continues to lead the other Solar PV patent owners since 2002 with nearly twice the number of patents held by Sharp, its closest competitor. However, as indicated by the color coding most of Canon and Sharp's patents were pre-2009. Many of the other top ten Solar PV patent holders since 2002 have more numerous patents in the 2009-2011 era, including Applied Materials which has 33 PV patents since 2009 and DuPont which has 26.
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Looking at just 2011, GE took first place with 14 Solar PV patents, most of which were in the Enabling area (8) along with two each in Second and Third Generation technologies followed by one PV Enhancement patent. Applied Materials dropped a place to second in 2011, tieing DuPont and Samsung with 13 PV patents. PV Enhancement led for Applied Materials at 9 followed by Adjacent (3), Second Generation (2) and First Generation (1) technologies. Samsung concentrated on Third Generation technologies with 7 along with 3 First Generation patents, 2 in PV Enhancement, and 1 in Second Generation. DuPont had 8 PV Enhancement patents, along with 4 in First Generation and 1 in Second Generation. Sanyo followed with 11 and Miasole with 9 granted Solar PV patents in 2011. Sanyo tied GE's total in Adjacent technologies and added one each in First, Third, and PV Enhancement technologies. Sunpower had 8 while three others (Atomic Energy Council, Konarka, and LG) had 7 patents. Sunpower unsurprisingly had had more First Generation patents (3) than any other type (1 in Second Generation, 2 in PV Enhancement and 2 in Adjacent). Atomic Energy Council spread its patents out among First Generation (2), Second Generation (1), Third Generation(1), PV Enhancement (2) and Adjacent Technologies (1). Organic PV maker Konarka unsurprisingly also had more Third Generation (5) patents than any other (1 in First Generation and 2 in PV Enhancement). LG had 3 granted patents in First Generation, 2 in Second Generation and 2 in PV Enhancment in 2011.
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Relative to total granted Solar PV patents since 2002, Canon has patents in almost all PV categories, led by Enabling (63), Second Generation (19), and First Generation (9) technology patents. Sharp also has more Enabling than other types of patents –picking up 5 in 2011 to arrive at 21. Second and Third Generation patents are both at 9 for Sharp while First Generation and PV Enhancement are at 7.
Other patent holders with larger numbers of Enabling technologies include Sanyo at 18, GE at 11, and Boeing at 10. Sunpower leads First Generation patents since 2002 with 17, along with several in the other technologies including 8 in Enabling, 6 in PV Enhancement, 3 in Second Generation and 1 in Third Generation.
As indicated above, Canon has 19 Second Generation patents and leads the field. While not in the 10 for overall PV patents, Solopower was the runner up with 14, and Miasole had 11, followed by Applied Materials (10 ) and Sharp (9).Konarka leads Third Generation overall with 21 patents followed by Samsung (14), Nanosolar and Sharp (9) and GE (7). DuPont is the leader in PV Enhancement at 15.
GE has most of its patents in Enabling technologies (11) followed by Third Generation (7) Second Generation (2) and First Generation and PV Applications (1). Konarka also has patents in PV Enhancement (4), Enabling (3), First Generation (1) and PV Applications (1). Besides Enabling technologies, Sanyo has 5 patents in Second Generation PV Enhancement, and 1 in Third Generation and PV Applications. Although not leading in any categories, Samsung has patents in various technologies including Third Generation at 14 as indicated above, First Generation at 7, Second Generation at 2, PV Enhancement at 5 and Enabling at 1.
Of the top 10 PV patent grantees for 2011, two are based in Korea and one each in Japan and Taiwan while the rest are based in the U.S. However, as is evident from the totals chart, especially the showing by Canon and Sharp, Japanese patent holders dominate the top 10 in absolute numbers of patents since 2002.
Hybrid Systems
As depicted below, patents in Hybrid technologies have hovered in very low numbers during the tracking period.
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