WIND ENERGY. Control and power production units. Patent Database. Aenert. February 2021
Summary
Wind turbines transform the kinetic energy of wind into electric power, which is what the ultimate consumer actually requires. To ensure the possibility of this process in principle and its satisfactory efficiency, wind turbines comprise a broad list of various devices, including, generators, anemometers, yaw and pitch systems, brake systems, and a host of other components. Each of these devices is responsible for specific aspects of the operation and are indispensable in modern wind turbine design.
Presently, various types of electric current generators become widely used, starting from asynchronous or synchronous alternating current machines to permanent magnet generators that are used in many offshore wind turbines. In addition, some companies use multipole synchronous generators and squirrel cage induction generators. The search for an ultimate generator design is conditioned by a will to provide high power density and small size with the highest efficiency across the entire range of rotor speed.
An equally important role in wind turbine design is played by wind direction and speed measuring systems in combination with yaw and pitch systems. Together, they provide timely orientation of a wind turbine rotor towards the direction of wind and control in a wide range of rotor revolution speed. Brake system allows, for example, to timely discontinue the operation of a wind turbine in a case of extreme wind gusts.
The control and electric power generation systems of wind turbines also include a large number of auxiliary components, including controllers, power inverters, electric cables, various technological sensors, batteries, etc. All of them, to one degree or another, contribute to the reliability of the entire system and need to be further improved.
The present database includes a collection of patents and patent applications disclosing original technical solutions in the field of Control and power production units.
Key Highlights
The database contains 15814 patent documents registered in patent offices around the world since 1995 that were published in publicly-available patent databases, found in the result of a deliberate patent search, and processed in accordance with the methodology by the date of compilation of this database (February 2021).
The database also includes statistical analysis for major parameters of patent documents published during the 20-year period between 2001-2020 and statistical analysis for major parameters of patent documents published during the 20-year period between 2001-2020.
Each patent document in this database contains a list of conventional bibliographical indicators, including original title, English version of title, family size, application date, publication date, patenting office, names of inventors and applicants, document kind (patent or application), number of claims, number of citing, IPC indices, and core document number.
Also, all documents are provided with additional markers – unified indicators that include: technology categories (indicate the applicability of technical solutions to one of the energy industry sectors, as stated by the authors of the inventions); technology elements (indicators with a specific level of detailing for the production process in a particular energy industry sector); problems (technical, economical, ecological and other problems declared by the authors in a patent document); type of technical solution (device, method, composition).
The database contains a number of derived indicators, including applicant statuses, residence of applicants, Unified Indicator Group. Indicators such as patent pending period, prominent patents, applicant's share in the aggregate intellectual property register can be calculated based on the available data.
Additional marking of patent documents represented in the database makes it possible to form exclusive lists of patent documents having any remarkable characteristics, such as top prominent documents by rating, top prominent documents by number of IPC sections, top prominent single applications, etc.
For the majority of patents and applications rating points are calculated based on the aggregate of bibliographical and unified indicators and the resulting values are shown in the database.
The aforementioned indicators make it possible to: perform a refined search of patent documents located in the database; form group combinations of documents based on specific criteria; quickly visualize collected data by simple operations supported by professional tables. This is also promoted by additionally provided search options – by keywords in patent document titles (Keyword) or by using a full list of IPC indicators assigned to patent family documents (Family IPC pool). To ensure convenience of operations with the database it is also provided with such additional features as Glossary, Overview, Filter Manual, and Explanatory Remarks.
The database also includes a brief statistical analysis of major parameters of patent documents published between 2001 and 2020, represented in the form of diagrams and tables, or lists of patents and applications composed based on selected parameters. The statistical results provided are acquired exclusively using the database under consideration and illustrate its capabilities.
Statistical analysis includes:
Inventions: 15794
Offices: 45
Countries: 42
Applicants: 2100
Individual IPC subgroups: 1988
Total IPC subgroups assigned: 39182
In particular, the statistical analysis includes a breakdown of documents by publication dates, by patent families, by patent offices, by residents and non-residents, and by applicant countries.
The main body of the patent documents were registered between 2012 and 2018 with a peak of patenting activity in 2015. With rare exceptions, USPTO (US) and EPO patent offices annually were the leaders by the number of granted patents. However, in the last years maximum number of patent applications were registered in CNIPA (CN).
The highest activity in patenting their inventions was demonstrated by the residents of Germany and Denmark. Among other countries whose residents were granted at least one hundred patents were the United States, Japan, China, Spain, and South Korea.
The most popular IPC subgroup with a share more than 12% was F03D7/02 – Controlling wind motors / the wind motors having rotation axis substantially parallel to the air flow entering the rotor. Method as a type of technical solution was mentioned in almost 55% of patented inventions; different devises were mentioned less often – in 45%.
More than 670 groups of identical unified indicators were identified among patents. The most numerous of them was a group with a combination of indicators HWT/CSS/LES/M, where HWT is "Horizontal axis wind turbine in general" technology category; CSS is "Control and safety systems" technology element; LES – "Low efficiency of secondary equipment" problem, M – "Method" technical solution type. WOBBEN PROPERTIES GMBH (DE), Vestas Wind Systems A/S (DK), and General Electric (US) had the largest number of inventions in this group. The following problems at which the technical solutions were aimed were mentioned more than others by the authors in their inventions: High OPEX / Repair and replacement and High OPEX / Operational maintenance.
A separate portion of the statistical analysis is dedicated to applicants of patent documents. It includes the lists of applicants separately for patents and applications, breakdown of applicants' patent documents by offices, by types of technical solution, by problems, by technology categories, by IPC sections.
The list of top 10 most productive applicants by the number of patents includes:
Vestas Wind Systems A/S (DK)
General Electric (US)
WOBBEN PROPERTIES GMBH (DE)
Siemens AG (DE)
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (JP)
Wobben Aloys (DE)
Senvion Deutschland GmbH (DE)
Nordex Energy Gmbh (DE)
Gamesa Innovation & Technology S.L. (ES)
Hitachi, Ltd. (JP)
The concluding part of the analysis includes calculated data that allow the resulting patenting trends to be exposed and main conclusions to be drawn. Such diagrams as relationship of number of applicants to number of patents by year, relationship of number of single applications to total number by year, new applicants by year, top new IPC subgroups, and others, are presented here.
Detailed information on the methodology of search and processing of patent documents is available on the Advanced Energy Technologies website (www.aenert.com).
Who needs this Database?
This Database serves as one of the variants to monitor advanced technical achievements in the specified industrial sector. The statistical data, rating evaluations and carefully selected patent documents provided in the Database can be of interest for inventors, engineers, researchers, students and educators, as well as for businessmen and investors, who in one way or another are concerned with the problems of the development of wind energy production technologies.
Disclaimer
The present database was prepared by EnerTechUp company and its partners. The database includes patent documents that were carefully collected from the publicly available sources and, according to the authors, to the greatest degree represent the latest innovations in the particular energy industry as of the date of the database preparation. Detailed information on the methodology of search and processing of patent documents is available at Advanced Energy Technologies website. Considering the difficulties related to the compilation of lists of international patent documents, including those related to time frames, national and terminological barriers, as well as taking into consideration high labour intensity of collecting the required analytical information and performing its qualitative interpretation, the authors of the database cannot guarantee absolute completeness and accuracy of the represented materials and disclaim any responsibility for the use thereof. EnerTechUp company represents this material “as is” and rejects any claims and liabilities arising from the use of data published therein, including, but not limited to: compensation for any type of financial damage, lost profit or compensation for moral injury. These stipulations also refer to employees, shareholders, agents and data suppliers of EnerTechUp company.
