Archive
CONCENTRATED SOLAR POWER. Latest published applications 2015-2017. Parabolic trough
Summary
The Parabolic trough concentrating solar power technology is the most widely used around the world today. The first solar power plants using parabolic trough technology were called Solar Electric Generating Stations and started operation in California back in 1984-1989. Even today some of them are still operating successfully. Spain later took the lead in the construction of stations of this type, where several dozen facilities are currently in operation. CSP parabolic trough systems in conjunction with thermal storage complexes using molten salt mixtures allow the uninterrupted commercial power supply services based solely on renewable sources, and are of particular interest to power engineers. Various engineering applications of this technology are being further developed, which helps to eliminate certain deficiencies and to increase the efficiency of power plants.
The present bulletin reviews patent applications registered by patent offices around the globe in 2015-2017 in the field related to Parabolic trough systems in Concentrated Solar Power. General research methodology can be found on the Advanced Energy Technologies website. 1084 patent documents from 32 patent offices around the world are represented in the bulletin. In total, 470 applicants from 35 countries and 631 subgroups of the International Patent Classification are mentioned.
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), and 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: CNIPA (CN), USPTO (US), WIPO, EPO, JPO (JP), INPI (BR).
Based on the analysis of each of the patent applications, internal characteristics of unified indicators (technical problems, types of inventive solutions, belonging to one or other technological segment) were found, which allowed specific features for each of the indicators for the entire array of documents to be defined, for instance, to define the leading problems or technical solution types that were disclosed by the inventors the most. Document lists are provided for the ten most popular groups of patent documents with identical unified indicators, including their ID numbers and applicant names.
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 applications by problems, IPC sections, patent offices and technology indicators. Representatives of China and the United States prevail among the patenting leaders in the examined period of time. These leaders include: BASF, SE (DE), Siemens Concentrated Solar Power, Ltd. (IL), Abengoa Solar New Technologies, S.A. (ES), Glasspoint Solar, Inc. (US), Schott AG (DE), Schott Solar AG (DE), 3M Innovative Properties Company (US), Abengoa Solar LLC (US), Airlight Energy IP SA (CH) and Chemours Company FC LLC (US).
The top prominent documents section includes three lists of the top 10 patent applications having the highest bibliographical rating, the largest number of IPC sections, and those not being a part of patent family.
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 registered patent applications.
Who needs this bulletin?
The proposed patent statistics bulletin allows the existing trends in the intellectual property market of the specified industrial sector to be timely traced, as well as the possibility of acquiring a carefully selected list of patent documents fully corresponding to the specified subject. The bulletin can be useful for inventors, engineers, scientific workers, and business representatives, who are focused on the development of solar energy production technologies.
