USA:

649 clean energy technology patents granted in the first quarter, just two for geothermal (Ecoseed)

The United States Patent and Trademark Office granted 649 patents for clean energy-related technologies in the first quarter of the year, the Cleantech Group said. Only two were granted for geothermal.

The group compiles the quarterly Clean Energy Patent Growth Index to track the granting of patents for nine sectors – solar, wind, hybrid or electric vehicles, fuel cells, hydroelectric, tidal or wave, geothermal, biomass/biofuels and “other clean renewable energy.”

The idea is to present a picture of how investments into the development of clean energy technologies are doing. The granting of a patent is a good indicator that efforts placed into developing a technology has been successful and it has enough perceived value to justify the time and expense put into it.

Geothermal patents were up by 2 patents, making 7 for the year to date.

Two geothermal patents were granted in 2011 to Kimberly Peacock while Mine-RG, Ormat Technologies, Inc., Ryland Wiggs, Echogen Power Systems, and Ivan Kocis et al., each received one patent. Kalex, LLC continues to lead in geothermal patents (8) overall since 2002 despite not having any patents in 2008-2011. GE, Ormat and Nuovo Pignone S.p.A. are the next closest at 3 total geothermal patents since 2002. 

Geothermal patents was the only sector that decreased at five less patents than 2009, a fifty percent decrease. All of the technology sectors, except geothermal, were at all time highs in 2010, surpassing all previous records.

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