Archive
CONCENTRATED SOLAR POWER. Latest granted patents 2016-2018. Linear Fresnel Reflector
Summary
Linear Fresnel reflector systems are gradually growing in popularity among energy companies specializing in the engineering and construction of solar power plants. Following projects in India (Dhursar, 125MW) and Spain (Puerto Errado 2 Thermosolar Power Plant, 30MW), the Dacheng Dunhuang 50MW Molten Salt Fresnel project in the Chinese province of Gansu and the eLLO 9MW Solar Thermal Project in France will soon go into operation. Both projects are consistent with the main current trends in the development of concentrated solar energy – the increasing geographic spread of this technology for commercial purposes and the use of long hours of thermal energy storage systems. While in the first project energy storage is ensured through special tanks with molten salt, in the second one a steam storage system will be tested. In addition, several more similar projects are being developed in China. These events, we may safely assume, indicate that economic and technical barriers to the development of linear Fresnel reflector technologies may have finally been overcome. In many respects this was facilitated by the accumulation of vital engineering knowledge, much of which is recorded in the form of patent documents. The proposed bulletin includes information on recent patents on this topic, including information on leading applicants, patent offices, and prominent patent solutions.
A selection of patents related to the subject of Linear Fresnel Reflector 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 331 patent patents, prepared by applicants from 25 countries and registered in 19 patent offices. The patent documents mention 232 applicants and 394 IPC subgroups.
Key Highlights
The bulletin contains statistical data on the 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 top three patent offices that granted the largest number of patents were CNIPA (CN), USPTO (US) and EPO.
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.
Data is provided for each of the top 10 applicants, leading in terms of the number of published patent documents among the ones examined in the bulletin, illustrating their share in the established intellectual property market, distribution of documents by problems, IPC sections, patent offices and technology indicators. Representatives of the USA prevail among the patenting leaders in the examined period of time. These leaders include: China, Germany, France, Spain, Japan, Australia, United Kingdom, Belgium and Norway.
The top prominent documents section includes three lists of the top 10 patents having the highest bibliographical rating, the largest number of IPC sections, and the shortest patent pending time.
The conclusive part of the bulletin represents the lists 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.
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.
