The present review includes key indicators of patenting activity of inventors in the field of wind energy in 2019 that were found as a result of a deliberate search and processed on the date of this publication. 2125 patent applications with technical content related to horizontal axis wind turbines registered in 23 patent offices around the world during the year under consideration were collected for the analysis. Almost 500 applicants from 29 countries participated in the patenting process. The methodology of searching and processing patent documents is provided on the Advanced Energy Technologies website.
About 94% of patent applications were concentrated in the top 10 patent offices listed below. China is the leader in terms of the number of registered documents, being responsible for 28% of the total number of applications, which is 595 documents. About 18% of invention applications were filed in the USA – slightly less percentage-wise than in the previous year and substantially less in terms of quantity.
The share of other popular patent offices – EPO and VIPO – accounted for 20.2 and 13.5% patent applications of the total, respectively.
Distribution of patent applications, published by the top 10 patent offices
Source: Advanced Energy Technologies
Residents of Denmark and Germany remained the most active applicants in 2019 and their cumulative share exceeded 55%. They are followed by the representatives of China, the US and Japan. This year, residents of France also made it to the top 10 by the number of registered patent applications.
Most of the non-residents were located in offices in Brazil, Australia, Canada and Taiwan (from 90% to 100%). Of the aforementioned offices, DPMA (German Patent and Trademark Office) was the least popular among non-residents with a share of about 1%.
Distribution of countries of the world by the number of resident applicants in patent applications
| Country | Applicants count | Total 2019 |
|---|---|---|
| DENMARK | 29 | 645 |
| GERMANY | 53 | 538 |
| CHINA | 223 | 391 |
| UNITED STATES | 35 | 238 |
| JAPAN | 23 | 87 |
| NETHERLANDS | 12 | 31 |
| SPAIN | 15 | 27 |
| SOUTH KOREA | 20 | 27 |
| UNITED KINGDOM | 13 | 24 |
| FRANCE | 10 | 20 |
| REST OF WORLD | 52 | 103 |
Source: Advanced Energy Technologies
A little more than 850 of individual IPC subgroups were mentioned in the patent applications collected, while in total they were assigned 5581 times. The most popular among them were: F03D 1/06 (rotors) – met in 12.1% of applications; F03D 07/02 (the wind motors having rotation axis substantially parallel to the air flow entering the rotor) – 6% and F03D 17/00 (Monitoring or testing of wind motors) – 5%.
Among the technology elements that were disclosed in the inventions Blades and Control and safety systems and components thereof raised the most interest with the inventors. Also, a very popular topic was Maintenance, repair and replacement.
Distribution of patent applications by the number of technology elements mentions
Source: Advanced Energy Technologies
AC - Aerodynamic casings (nacelles, shrouds, etc.); B - Blades and components thereof; CSS - Control and safety systems; EE - Electrical equipment and generators; ESH - Energy storage and hybrid generation systems; GT - Gearbox and transmission; MRR - Maintenance, repair and replacement; OTE - Other technology elements; R - Rotors and components thereof; SE - Structural elements
The majority of patent solutions in the registered patent applications were aimed at resolving the problems "High OPEX / Repair and replacement". Other popular problems included "High CAPEX / Equipment production" and "High CAPEX / Plant construction".
More detailed information on the methodology as well as on the results of patent researches in the most important fields of contemporary energy industry can be found at Advanced Energy Technologies.
