Archive
CONCENTRATED SOLAR POWER. Latest granted patents 2016-2018. Energy Storage
Summary
Energy storage is one of the key challenges, largely constraining the development of renewable energy. Currently, more than 96% of electric energy storage stations use hydraulic pumped storage, which is characterized by a number of significant disadvantages, including, first and foremost, high cost. Great prospects lie in the use of large-scale battery storage capacity; however, a real breakthrough is widely expected from concentration of solar power with thermal energy storage systems. According to optimistic estimates, over the next three decades the total capacity of such solar stations may increase several times from the current 3 GW. This bulletin has compiled and analyzed recent patents, which most reflect the current engineering trends in this energy sector.
A selection of patents related to the subject of Energy storage technologies in Concentrated solar power and published by patent offices around the globe in 2016-2018 is provided for review in the present bulletin. General research methodology can be found on the Advanced Energy Technologies website. The present bulletin includes 296 patents, prepared by applicants from 23 countries and registered in 21 patent offices. The patent documents mention 151 applicants and 395 IPC subgroups.
Key Highlights
The bulletin provides general statistical figures, including the overall distribution of patent documents by years, by patent offices and by applicant countries, applicant-related data (residents and non-residents), data on the most frequently mentioned International Patent Classification divisions (sections, classes, subclasses, groups, and subgroups). The most popular patent offices among the applicants were: USPTO (US), CNIPA (CN), IP Australia (AU), EPO, CIPC (ZA), JPO (JP).
For each of the patent documents selected for the examination in the present bulletin the characteristics of unified indicators were preliminary defined, they include: technical problems, types of inventive solutions employed, belonging to one or other technological segment. This allows the internal content for each of the indicators in the aggregate array of documents to be visualized, for instance, to define the sequence and proportional correlation of technical problems the inventive solutions disclosed in the texts aim to solve. A list of the top 10 groups consisting of patent documents with identical unified indicators contains ID numbers and applicant names of respective documents; the groups are sorted by the number of patent documents.
The following information can be found for the top 10 applicants: breakdown of documents by problems, IPC sections, patent offices, technological indicators, as well as the estimation of their share in the established intellectual property market. The 10 leading applicants by the number of patent documents were: BASF, SE (DE), Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (FR), Zhongying Changjiang International New Energy Investment Co., Ltd. (CN), Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Ltd (JP), Magaldi Industrie, S.R.L. (IT), University of Stellenbosch (ZA), Alstom Technology, Ltd. (CH), General Electric Technology Gmbh (CH), Kim Byung Jun (KR) and NEST AS (NO).
The bulletin contains lists of the top 10 prominent patents having the highest bibliographical rating, the most extensive coverage of IPC sections, the shortest patent pending time.
A list of all of the documents reviewed, arranged by the top 10 groups of patent documents with identical unified indicators and by patent offices with the indication of the ID numbers of the granted patents is provided in the conclusive part of the bulletin.
Who needs this bulletin?
The data provided in the proposed bulletin is a timely reflection of the transformations that take place in the intellectual property sector of the industrial direction concerned. A thoroughly edited selection of patent documents can become a good complement to your library of available technical solutions. The bulletin is targeted at inventors, engineers, researchers, managers and business administrators involved in the development of solar energy production technologies.
