Your Feedback

WIND ENERGY. Offshore Wind Turbine. Patent Database. Aenert. June 2022

Information:
WIND ENERGY. Offshore Wind Turbine. Patent Database. Aenert. June 2022
Energy Sector:
Wind energy
Date:
June 2022
Publisher:
EnerTechUp GmbH
Document Type:
Excel file
Size:
4.08 Mb
Number of pages:
5671 (number of patent documents)
Research Type:
Patent Database
Research code:
010101220303

Summary

Wind energy is a rapidly developing area of modern energy industry, which plays an increasingly important role in the global energy supply. According to the forecast of IRENA, in its dynamic scenario, offshore wind energy capacities can increase to more than 500 GW by 2050.
One of the main barriers to the development of wind energy is its low capacity factor, which in real practice rarely exceeds 30%. The leading trends in the development of wind energy are the increase in the size of wind turbines and construction of wind farms in offshore zones, which allows the maximum capacity factor to be achieved. Thus, one of the largest offshore wind turbines – Haliade-X, developed by General Electric, have a tower height of over 260 meters and a rotor diameter of 220 meters. Offshore wind energy is of particular interest and has a huge resource potential. In 2021 the total installed capacity of offshore wind energy exceeded 56 GW, but this only amounted to slightly more than 7% of the total capacity, including onshore wind turbines.
At the same time, the successful installation and operation of offshore wind turbines requires additional organizational efforts and financial investments. This is primarily due to the fact that the installation, operation and repair of multi-ton marine structures reaching several dozen meters requires special equipment, staff training, as well as timely improvement of existing technology. It should be especially noted that the maintenance, repair and replacement of parts for wind turbines are the most vulnerable technological aspects on the way to achieving their maximum workload, which still remains low. In addition, these activities account for a significant share of operating expenses. Therefore, ensuring the high reliability of all structural elements, especially the blades, is a paramount task in the development of the production of components of wind turbine and their operation.
The present database includes the collection of patents and patent applications that propose original engineering solutions in this sector of contemporary energy industry.

 

Key Highlights

The database contains 5671 patent documents (patents and patent applications) that have been registered in patent offices around the world mainly since 2001, which were published in publicly-available patent databases, found as a result of a deliberate patent search, and processed in accordance with the methodology by the date of compilation of this database (June, 2022). The database includes patents and patent applications related to offshore wind turbines, as indicated by the authors in the text of the inventions. The database also includes several documents published before 2001.
A free demo version of this database can be downloaded here:

The demo version presents the first hundred patent documents, as well as some of the statistical information. In most cases, statistical diagrams and tables are limited to the first positions, the rest are hidden by symbols ###. In the full version the statistical information is presented in full and the diagrams are calculated automatically.
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 2002 and 2021, 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: 5612

Offices: 42

Countries: 32

Applicants: 982

Individual IPC subgroups: 1070

Total IPC subgroups assigned: 16742

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 2015 and 2019 with a peak of patenting activity in 2018. With rare exceptions, EPO and USPTO (US) 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 Denmark with a share of more than 19% of the total number of applicants who were granted patents during 2002-2021. Among other countries whose residents were granted at least one hundred patents were Germany, United States, Japan, China, Spain and France.
The most popular IPC subgroup with a share of almost 6% was F03D1/00 – Wind motors with rotation axis substantially parallel to the air flow entering the rotor. Device as a type of technical solution was mentioned in almost 61% of patented inventions; different methods were mentioned considerably less often – in 39%.
More than 370 groups of identical unified indicators were identified among patents. The most numerous of them was a group with a combination of indicators OFT/SE/HCC/D, where OFT is "Offshore wind turbine" technology category; SE is "Structural elements" technology element; HCC – "High CAPEX / Plant construction" problem, D – "Device" technical solution type. Saitec Offshore Technologies S.L.U. (ES), Siemens AG (DE), University of Maine System (US), and Owec Tower AS (NO) 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 CAPEX / Plant construction and High OPEX / Repair and replacement.
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)

MHI Vestas Offshore Wind A/S (DK)

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (JP)

Wobben Aloys (DE)

Siemens AG (DE)

Principle Power Inc (US)

General Electric (US)

Hitachi, Ltd. (JP)

University of Maine System (US)

Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy A/S (DK)

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.