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Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/concentrating-solar-power-patent-landscape-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-08-31 · downloaded from the live page
Patent Landscape · Solar EnergyConcentrating Solar Power Patents: Who Leads and Where the Claims Sit
- Filing is dispersed, not cornered: the ranked leader holds 51 records and the top 5 combined account for just 14.5% of all 1,097 records in scope.
- Heat collection still dominates claim space: F24S solar heat collectors cover 31.1% of records, ahead of semiconductor (H01L, 21.1%) and photovoltaic-generation (H02S, 17.1%) classes.
- Volume has pulled back from its 2017 peak of 96 filings a year: filings fell from 85 in 2021 to 46 in 2024, a 46% drop over that span, though 2025-2026 figures are still filling in.
1,097
Published Records
14%
Top-5 Share of All Records
-46%
Filing Growth 2021→2024
US
Leading Jurisdiction
Filing growth compares 2021 (85 records) with 2024 (46) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 1,097 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
Published byPatsnap Research··7 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Overview
What the concentrating solar power patent record shows
Concentrating solar power (CSP) patenting spans two distinct engineering problems: capturing and concentrating solar heat, and converting that energy into usable electricity or process heat. The record in scope, built from 1,097 published documents filed between 2015 and 2026, reflects both halves of that split — a large share of filings sit in heat-collector and mirror/receiver classes, while a separate cluster addresses the power electronics, control circuitry and grid-interface problems that turn concentrated heat or light into dispatchable power. No single assignee has cornered either side of that split.
Reading the assignee ranking alongside the technology classes gives a more useful picture than either alone. A dispersed filer base combined with dense claim coverage in collector geometry means the openings are less likely to be in mirror or trough design and more likely to be in the control, sensing and grid-integration layers that sit further down the IPC list.
Filing activity and technology composition, 2015-2026
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on Concentrating Solar Power Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
The Numbers
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 1,097-record dataset: how filing volume has moved year over year, and how those records distribute across IPC subclasses. Because a single record can carry more than one class, the composition shares add up to more than 100%.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Filings peaked at 96 in 2017 and have since declined, falling from 85 in 2021 to 46 in 2024 — a 46% drop over three years. Treat 2025 and 2026 as undercounted: publication typically lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the most recent bars will still rise as more records publish.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
F24S (solar heat collectors) leads at 31.1% of the 1,097 records in scope, followed by H01L (semiconductor devices, 21.1%) and H02S (photovoltaic and solar power generation, 17.1%). Power-supply and grid-systems claims under H02J sit further down at 9.1%, marking where the electrical integration side of CSP is comparatively lightly claimed relative to the thermal-collection side.
Shares are the percentage of the 1,097 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Concentrating Solar Power Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
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Representative filing and most-cited records
Representative Filing
Coupling photovoltaic, concentrated solar power, and wind technologies for desalination
SAUDI ARABIAN OIL COMPANY
A system pairs a concentrated solar power (CSP) subsystem that raises heat-transfer-fluid temperature and pressure to produce steam with a photovoltaic (PV) subsystem generating electricity, feeding both into a desalination system that produces water from a saltwater source using the CSP steam and PV electricity, coordinated by a pump station.Filed by Saudi Arabian Oil Company, published 2018-11-29 as US20180339916A1.
Most-cited records in this dataset
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20150298565A1 | Charging support system and charging support method for electric vehicle | 235 |
| 2 | US20100263709A1 | Systems for cost-effective concentration and utilization of solar energy | 229 |
| 3 | US20140278108A1 | Methods and Systems for Optical Flow Modeling Applications for Wind and Solar Irradiance Forecasting | 212 |
| 4 | US6689949B2 | Concentrating photovoltaic cavity converters for extreme solar-to-electric conversion efficiencies | 198 |
| 5 | US20110295575A1 | System and method for geomatic modeling of a diverse resource base across broad landscapes | 184 |
| 6 | US20170104426A1 | Electrical power generation systems and methods regarding same | 175 |
| 7 | US20030213514A1 | Concentrating photovoltaic cavity converters for extreme solar-to-electric conversion efficiencies | 157 |
| 8 | WO2011044641A1 | A solar collector | 143 |
| 9 | WO2010118503A1 | Systems for cost-effective concentration and utilization of solar energy | 142 |
| 10 | US20090272424A1 | Integrating sphere photovoltaic receiver (powersphere) for laser light to electric power conversion | 122 |
Citation counts reflect influence within the searched corpus and skew toward older filings; they are not a measure of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Citation counts and representative records. Derived from a Patsnap search on Concentrating Solar Power Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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What the filing pattern signals
Three read-throughs of the concentration, class and receiving-office data that matter for where to file, where to license, and where to expect prior art.
Concentration
14.5%
of 1,097 records held by the top 5 assignees
No single filer controls the field
With the leader at 51 records and the top 5 combined holding only 14.5% of all 1,097 records in scope, CSP patenting looks like a long tail of research institutions, national labs and single-filing entrants rather than a market cornered by a handful of majors.
Ranking covers 100 companies
Technology mix
31.1%
of records touch F24S solar heat collectors
Thermal collection is the densest claim space
F24S leads the IPC breakdown well ahead of the semiconductor and photovoltaic-generation classes, meaning collector geometry, mirror and receiver claims sit on the most crowded prior art. Power-supply and grid-integration claims (H02J, 9.1%) are comparatively open by contrast.
Shares sum to over 100% because records carry multiple classes
Filing momentum
-46%
change from 85 filings (2021) to 46 (2024)
Volume has cooled from its 2017 peak
Annual filings peaked at 96 in 2017 and have since fallen, dropping 46% between 2021 and 2024. That decline should be read against the 18-month publication lag, which understates the most recent years rather than confirming the trend continues.
2024 is the most recent complete year
Jurisdiction
358
records filed via the United States receiving office
Filing activity concentrates in the US, EPO and PCT routes
The United States leads receiving offices, ahead of Europe and WIPO's PCT route, with India, Australia and Israel forming a smaller secondary tier. That pattern points to where enforcement risk and prior art density are highest for a new filer.
Receiving-office counts, not deduplicated across routes
Eureka AI Agent
Looking for what nobody has claimed yet?
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to concentrating solar power patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on Concentrating Solar Power Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Players
Who is filing, and where the gaps sit
The assignee ranking mixes national laboratories, universities and a small number of energy and industrial companies. Recent-year momentum across the ranked leaders is flat to negligible, which is consistent with a field where activity has dispersed rather than consolidated around a frontrunner.
Ranked leader
51
records
The single largest filer still holds a modest share
At 51 records, the top-ranked assignee sits well short of dominating a 1,097-record field, underscoring how fragmented CSP patenting remains even at the top of the ranking.
Out of 100 ranked companies
Co-filing
10
co-assignee pairs identified
Collaboration is limited and mostly academic
The strongest co-assignee pairs link university research groups rather than corporate partners, suggesting CSP innovation here still runs largely through single-institution research programmes rather than joint ventures.
Strongest pair recorded 19 shared filings
Momentum
0-1
filings per leading assignee in the latest year
Recent-year activity is thin across the board
None of the assignees tracked for recent-year momentum show more than a single filing in the latest year, which is consistent with the broader volume pullback and the publication lag rather than a sign any one filer has exited the field.
Latest-year counts are still filling in
Recent-year filing momentum among ranked leaders
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Brilliant Light Power Inc | 1 | — |
| Vast Solar Pty Ltd | 1 | 0% |
| Palo Alto Research Center Inc | 0 | — |
| The Regents of the University of Colorado | 0 | — |
| University of Wyoming | 0 | — |
| 3M Innovative Properties Co | 0 | — |
| National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia LLC | 0 | -100% |
| Ramot at Tel Aviv University Ltd | 0 | — |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on Concentrating Solar Power Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
What's Next
Where to take this next
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, licensing strategy or spotting an open filing position.
Check freedom-to-operate against the densest classes
F24S, H01L and H02S carry the highest record counts, so any new collector or semiconductor-integration claim should be checked against this prior art before drafting.
Explore claims in Patsnap EurekaTrack the control and grid-integration layer
H02J and current-sensor related claims sit at a lower share of the dataset, which is where a first-mover position may still be available.
Run a white-space search in Patsnap EurekaWatch recent-year filings as they publish
Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, 2025-2026 volumes will keep rising; revisit the trend once those years settle before concluding the field has cooled for good.
Set up monitoring in Patsnap EurekaSource: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Concentrating Solar Power Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
The ranked leader in this dataset holds 51 records, but that is a modest share of the 1,097 records in scope — the top 5 assignees combined account for only 14.5% of all records. The field is best described as a long tail of national laboratories, universities and individual companies rather than one dominated by a single patent holder. Anyone assessing competitive risk should look at the full ranked list of 100 companies rather than assuming a market leader controls the space.
Filings peaked in 2017 at 96 records and have declined since, falling from 85 in 2021 to 46 in 2024, a 46% drop over that span. However, publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 and 2026 figures are still incomplete and should not be read as continuing the decline. The safest conclusion is that volume has cooled off its 2017 high, not that the technology is being abandoned.
F24S, covering solar heat collectors, is the densest class at 31.1% of the 1,097 records in scope, followed by H01L semiconductor devices at 21.1% and H02S photovoltaic and solar power generation at 17.1%. Because a single patent can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares add up to more than 100% and should not be summed as if they were mutually exclusive categories. Power-supply and grid-systems claims under H02J are comparatively lighter at 9.1%, indicating less claim density in that area.
The technology composition data suggests lighter claim density in the control, sensing and grid-integration layers compared with thermal-collector hardware — areas such as solar-irradiance forecasting control loops, current-sensor fault detection for grid-tied systems, and switching-frequency optimisation for solar inverters. These sit at the intersection of the CSP-specific classes and general power-electronics classes, which tend to carry fewer combined filings than the core F24S collector space. A freedom-to-operate search focused specifically on those combined classes is the fastest way to confirm an opening before drafting claims.
The United States receiving office leads with 358 records, ahead of the European Patent Office at 173 and the WIPO PCT route at 148. India, Australia and Israel form a smaller secondary tier of filing activity. This distribution matters for enforcement planning: US filings warrant the closest prior-art review given their volume, while the PCT figure signals how much activity is still moving toward national phase decisions.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Concentrating Solar Power Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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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.