Concentrated Solar Power Patents: Leaders, Trends & White Space 2026
- Filing has cooled since its 2020 peak of 21 records. the midpoint year 2022 logged only 5, and the trend has not recovered — this is a field with occupied claim space rather than fresh momentum.
- F24S solar-heat-collector claims dominate the IPC mix. 148 of 186 records sit in F24S, with F03G and F24J close behind, showing filers concentrate on collector and thermal-conversion hardware over materials or optics.
- The most-cited records are a decade or more old. the top-cited documents date to the early 2010s, so influence in this corpus reflects early foundational filings, not where activity is happening now.
What this landscape covers
This review tracks patent families published between 2015 and 2026 that claim concentrated solar power systems, including heliostat field control, molten salt receivers, parabolic trough collectors and thermal storage for CSP. The search combines title/abstract terms for solar thermal towers and troughs with IPC codes for solar heat collectors (F24S) and thermal-to-mechanical energy conversion (F03G). Coverage runs through a 2026-07-31 data cut-off, with the most recent year necessarily undercounted because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months.
186 patent families were identified in total, filed across receiving offices led by the United States, PCT/WIPO filings and the European Patent Office, with a smaller but notable share from Australia, India and China. The technology composition skews heavily toward mechanical collector and conversion hardware rather than coatings, optics or novel storage chemistries, a pattern that matters for anyone deciding where to file next.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 186-family dataset: how filing volume has moved year over year, and how those filings split across IPC subclasses.
A peak in 2020, then a decline
Filings rose from 4 in 2017 to a peak of 21 in 2020, then fell back to 5 by the 2022 midpoint, with 2026 still at 0 as a partial year. Read the tail end cautiously: publication lag means 2025 and 2026 filings are still arriving. The shape overall — a rise, a peak, then a decline that has not reversed — indicates a technology area that saw a filing wave rather than sustained compounding growth.
Collector hardware dominates the classification mix
F24S (solar heat collectors) appears in 148 of 186 records, with F03G (motors converting thermal/mechanical energy) at 87 and F24J at 76. Coating and surface deposition (C23C), steam/thermal power plant integration (F01K), laminates (B32B), optics (G02B) and specialty materials (C09K) each account for a smaller slice — evidence that most applicants are claiming collector and conversion architecture rather than the materials or optical layers that sit around it.
Shares are the percentage of the 186 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Concentrated Solar Power Technology Landscape with Eureka
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Try EurekaThe documents anchoring this space
Central tube for a linear concentrating solar thermal power plant, having an absorber layer
The filing covers a central tube for linear concentrating solar thermal plants with an absorber layer produced by cold gas sputtering, engineered for a specific surface roughness — no more than 1 µm quadratic roughness measured over a 50 µm diameter — using a corrosion-resistant hard alloy. The method claim ties the roughness outcome to the sputtering process parameters rather than to the alloy composition alone.Filed by Siemens Aktiengesellschaft, 2011-04-07 (CA2775822A1).
View full record| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20130257056A1 | Methods and systems for concentrated solar power | 124 |
| 2 | WO2008108870A1 | Solar power plant and method and/or system of storing energy in a concentrated solar power plant | 119 |
| 3 | US20140366536A1 | High temperature thermal energy for grid storage and concentrated solar plant enhancement | 95 |
| 4 | US7954321B2 | Solar power plant and method and/or system of storing energy in a concentrated solar power plant | 89 |
| 5 | US20110277471A1 | Solar power plant and method and/or system of storing energy in a concentrated solar power plant | 82 |
| 6 | US20100176602A1 | Solar power plant and method and/or system of storing energy in a concentrated solar power plant | 81 |
| 7 | US20120011850A1 | Broadband reflectors, concentrated solar power systems, and methods of using the same | 75 |
| 8 | US10065868B2 | Coupling photovoltaic and concentrated solar power technologies for desalination | 62 |
| 9 | US20110100004A1 | Adaptive control of a concentrated solar power-enabled power plant | 57 |
| 10 | WO2010078105A1 | Broadband reflectors, concentrated solar power systems, and methods of using the same | 52 |
Citation counts reward earlier filings within a searched corpus; treat this table as a map of foundational influence, not current filing activity.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three read-throughs from the trend, the IPC split and the citation table, aimed at where effort is and is not currently being spent.
The 2020 wave has not repeated
Filing peaked at 21 records in 2020 and had fallen to 5 by 2022, with no recovery visible before the data cut-off. This is consistent with a technology that saw a burst of interest tied to a specific period rather than an area still compounding filings year over year.
Collector hardware absorbs most claim activity
F24S solar-heat-collector claims appear in the large majority of records, with F03G thermal-to-mechanical conversion close behind. Materials-adjacent classes — coatings, laminates, optics — carry far fewer filings, which is where claim space looks least occupied.
Influence sits with early-2010s filings
The most-cited documents in this corpus were filed in the early 2010s. That reflects how citation counts accumulate over time inside a searched set, not that current activity clusters around the same claims — newer filings simply have not had time to accrue citations.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to concentrated solar power technology landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gate sits
186 families is a modest corpus, and recent-year momentum data shows several previously active assignees recording zero filings in the latest tracked year — a sign of a maturing, occupied field rather than one with a clear current leader pulling ahead.
Collaboration is limited and specific
Only ten co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, and the strongest pairings link a national energy research body with an industrial manufacturing partner. This points to project-specific joint filings rather than a broad ecosystem of routine co-development.
Several established filers have gone quiet
Assignees that appear elsewhere in the ranking, including Glasspoint Solar and Siemens, show zero filings in the most recent tracked year. Combined with the post-2020 decline in overall volume, this suggests consolidation of effort rather than new entrants driving activity.
US, PCT and Europe carry most of the volume
The United States leads as a receiving office, followed closely by PCT/WIPO international filings and the European Patent Office, with Australia, India and China each contributing a smaller but non-trivial share. Filing strategy in this space still runs primarily through the traditional US-Europe-PCT triangle.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Glasspoint Solar, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Siemens Aktiengesellschaft | 0 | — |
| ODQA Renewable Energy Technology Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Nuovo Pignone S.r.l. | 0 | — |
| SUNCOM ENERGY BV | 0 | — |
| Research Foundation of the City University of New York | 0 | — |
| Australian National University | 0 | -100% |
| Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA) | 0 | — |
Using this landscape
The data points to where claim space is thin and where it is not; the next step is testing a specific claim direction against the full family record.
Check freedom-to-operate before drafting
With F24S collector claims covering the large majority of this corpus, a new filing in collector or conversion hardware needs a close read of the most-cited families before drafting around them.
Run a freedom-to-operate check in EurekaExplore the under-claimed branches
Coating durability, heliostat control algorithms and hybrid storage integration show thinner filing density than core collector hardware, which is where a first-mover claim is more likely to stand.
Explore white space in EurekaQuestions practitioners ask about CSP patents
The most-cited records in this dataset are early-2010s filings, including US20130257056A1 and a family of related filings around solar power plant energy storage cited well over 80 times each. High citation counts in a searched corpus tend to favour older filings simply because they have had more time to accumulate citations, so these documents are best read as foundational reference points rather than a current leaderboard. Anyone assessing freedom to operate should still review these families closely, since their claims often anchor the broader thermal storage and plant-integration space.
No — filing peaked at 21 records in 2020 and had fallen to 5 by the 2022 midpoint, with no recovery visible through the most recent tracked years. Some of that recent decline is an artefact of publication lag, since filings typically take around 18 months to publish and the newest years in any dataset are undercounted. Even allowing for that lag, the multi-year decline from the 2020 peak suggests filing activity has cooled rather than merely paused.
Solar heat collector hardware, classified under IPC F24S, appears in 148 of the 186 families in this dataset, making it by far the most heavily claimed area. Thermal-to-mechanical conversion technology (F03G) and related collector configurations (F24J) follow closely behind. Materials-adjacent areas such as coatings, laminates and optical components carry far fewer filings, indicating that most patent activity targets collector and conversion architecture rather than the materials or optics used within it.
Based on filing density relative to the dominant F24S collector claims, sub-areas including absorber coating durability, heliostat field control algorithms, molten salt receiver corrosion resistance and hybrid CSP-storage integration show comparatively thin coverage. These are not unclaimed entirely, but they carry far fewer filings than core collector hardware. A first claim in one of these branches would need to be drafted narrowly around a specific material, algorithm or integration method to clear the existing art.
The United States is the leading receiving office in this dataset with 62 records, followed by PCT/WIPO international filings at 33 and the European Patent Office at 32. Australia, India and China each account for a smaller share of filings. This distribution reflects a filing strategy still centred on the US, Europe and PCT routes, with China representing a comparatively small share of this particular corpus despite its scale in solar manufacturing more broadly.
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company’s registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.