What are the patent trends for solar energy?

Patent trends for each type of energy are quite different. Solar and wind are currently the most widely used energy sources, and patent numbers for solar energy are far higher than the other energy technologies. Additionally, solar technologies seem to have developed rapidly since 2000, and most particularly since 2005.

How many solar energy patents are there?

Using this retrieval strategy, we assembled 242,631 solar energy patents, 74,800 wind energy patents, 37,675 biomass energy patents, 17,228 geothermal energy patents, 16,306 tidal energy patents, and 6023 nuclear energy patents. After preprocessing the data and deleting duplicates, etc., we ultimately retrieved 383,756 patents. 4.

Where do patent applications for solar energy technology come from?

Patent applications for solar energy technologies were concentrated particularly at USPTO and JPO, while applications for wind power technologies were distributed relatively equally between the EPO, USPTO, and JPO and the PCT system.

Which companies patent solar energy?

Canon and Sharp focused their patenting activity primarily on solar energy, while Honda Motor, Nissan Motor, and Toyota Motor concentrated almost exclusively on hydrogen and fuel cell technologies. Toshiba, the largest single patent applicant, focused on solar, hydropower, and hydrogen fuel cells.

When did energy innovation-related patenting expand?

We find that energy innovation-related patenting has first expanded exponentially up until 2013, both in terms of the total number of patent families and PCT international patent applications in green energy technologies.

Are green energy technology patents declining?

Although most green energy technologies have seen a downward trend in the annual number of patents published since 2012, the decline has been most pronounced in nuclear power generation technologies and alternative energy production technologies.