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CONCENTRATED SOLAR POWER. Latest published applications 2017-2019. Tracking, control and structural systems
Summary
The performance of solar power plants depends on climatic conditions along with the quality of the equipment used in the system. One of the key factors in achieving maximum output from plants with solar concentrators is the configuration of solar tracking systems, which must accurately track the position of the sun depending on the time of year and time of day. The use of single-axis and even more dual-axis trackers makes it possible to significantly increase the efficiency and competitiveness of solar stations, in comparison to static solar systems. Another critical aspect which greatly influences the performance of a solar plant is the precise system of controlling, responsible for accurate and coordinated operation of different units, including trackers, receivers, generators and energy storage elements. With the advancement of technologies, higher requirements are also being put on the performance of the structural elements, such as pipelines, mirrors, receiver tubes, pylons, etc. This paper presents statistical information on patent applications in this field, giving an overview on emerging technological developments and solutions to above mentioned elements of solar power production.
The proposed bulletin is dedicated to tracking, control and structural systems in concentrated solar power and includes patent applications published in 2017-2019. Research methodology is available on the Advanced Energy Technologies website. The patent bulletin includes 1740 patent documents. The applications were registered in 38 patent offices around the world. 883 applicants from 36 countries participated in the development of the inventions. 709 subgroups of the International Patent Classification were encountered in the patent documents.
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: CNIPA (CN), USPTO (US), WIPO, EPO, KIPO (KR), IP Australia (AU), and JPO (JP).
From the analysis of texts of patent applications presented in this bulletin, detailed information is extracted for each of the unified indicators, which include: technical problems, types of inventive solutions employed, belonging of a patent document to one or other technological segment. The results of the statistical processing of this data for the entire array of the patent documents examined are summarized in the correspondingly-named diagrams and tables. In addition to that, a list of the top 10 groups of patent documents with identical unified indicators is provided, where the groups are sorted by the number of patent documents and include ID numbers and applicant names of the documents.
A list of the top 10 applicants by the number of patent applications includes SunPower Corporation (USA), Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd. (Japan), Optimum Tracker (France), NEXTracker Inc. (USA), Alion Energy Inc (USA), Sunfolding LLC (USA), Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (France), Zhejiang Chint New Energy Development Co., Ltd (China), Abengoa Solar New Technologies, S.A. (Spain), and Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR) (Germany). Data representing the share in the established intellectual property market, distribution of documents by problems, IPC sections, patent offices and technology indicators is provided in the form of tables and diagrams for them.
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.
