Archive
CONCENTRATED SOLAR POWER. Latest granted patents 2016-2018. Receiver
Summary
Receivers of concentrated sunlight are one of the fundamental elements of any type of CSP technologies, being of key importance for solar-to-electric efficiency of thermal solar stations. Gas-based, liquid-based, and particle-based central receiver designs that are most commercially-used around the world face challenges associated with radiative and convective heat losses, heat-transfer limitation, overheating of obstruction materials, extreme corrosion, high-cost equipment, etc. These issues are becoming particularly pressing in the context of current engineering developments which intend to enable higher efficiency power cycles which increase the outlet temperature of heat transfer fluids to 700°C or more. This bulletin presents the latest patents in this area, giving an overview of modern emerging technologies, statistical indicators and technical solutions.
A selection of patents related to Receivers 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 761 patents, prepared by applicants from 32 countries and registered in 23 patent offices. The patent documents mention 479 applicants and 694 IPC subgroups.
Key Highlights
Statistical information presented in the bulletin includes distribution of patent documents by years, by patent offices and by applicant countries, applicant-related data (residents and non-residents), and data on the most frequently mentioned International Patent Classification divisions (sections, classes, subclasses, groups, and subgroups). The largest number of patents during the period of time under revision was granted by the patent office of China.
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 visualised, 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, 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: Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (FR), Cockerill Maintenance & Ingenierie S.A. (BE), Abengoa Solar New Technologies, S.A. (ES), Babcock & Wilcox Company (US), Schott Solar AG (DE), Alstom Technology, Ltd. (CH), Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd. (JP), Siemens Concentrated Solar Power, Ltd. (IL), SunPower Corporation (US) and University of Stellenbosch (ZA).
The top prominent documents section includes three lists of the top patents having the highest bibliographical rating, the largest number of IPC sections, and 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.
