Enhanced Geothermal Systems Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- Filings grew 77% from 2021 to 2024, the fastest sustained rise in the dataset, peaking at 69 records in 2024 before the usual publication lag understates the last two years.
- The top 5 assignees hold just 22.5% of all 583 records, and the top 10 hold 36.2% — concentration exists but a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants still accounts for most of the field.
- Drilling (E21B) and geothermal-system classes (F03G, F24T) each cover roughly a third of records, while heat-exchange, materials and refrigeration classes remain comparatively thin — a sign of where claim space is still open.
Filing growth compares 2021 (39 records) with 2024 (69) — 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 583 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the enhanced geothermal systems patent record shows
Enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) extend conventional geothermal power to sites without naturally permeable, hot-fluid-bearing rock, by engineering fracture networks and circulating a working fluid to extract heat. The patent record in scope, 583 records filed between 2015 and 2026, sits at the intersection of oilfield drilling and stimulation techniques and closed-loop thermal-cycle engineering — the search string itself pairs EGS terminology with working-fluid and heat-flux language, which is why drilling and thermal-cycle classes dominate the technology composition.
Filing activity accelerated sharply in the early 2020s, tracking rising private investment in EGS demonstration projects, before the most recent one to two years understate true activity because publication trails filing by roughly 18 months.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 583 records: how filings have moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claims.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Filings rose from 9 in 2017 to a peak of 69 in 2024, including a 77% jump from 2021 (39) to 2024 (69). 2025 and 2026 read lower only because publication has not caught up with filing.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
E21B (drilling), F03G and F24T (geothermal systems) each appear in roughly a third of all 583 records; F28D, C09K, F01K and F25B are present in single-digit-to-low-teens percentages, marking the thinner, more specialised branches of the field.
Shares are the percentage of the 583 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Enhanced Geothermal Systems Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about enhanced geothermal systems patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaA representative filing and the most-cited prior art
US20220082091A1 — Power generation model based on a transcritical cycle with an increasing-pressure endothermic process using CO2-based mixture working fluids for an enhanced geothermal system
Filed by Tianjin University, this application describes a geothermal water circulation, a mixture working-fluid circulation, and a cooling-water circulation, with a coaxial pipe-in-pipe downhole heat exchanger placed in the working-fluid loop. It uses gravity to run an increasing-pressure endothermic process, raising the heat absorbed per cycle and hence the power output, and specifies a binary CO2-based mixture working fluid to tune the cycle's thermodynamic properties.Abstract condensed from the original filing; see the full record for complete claim language.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20170341942A1 | Methods and systems for large scale carbon dioxide utilization from lake KIVU via a co2 industrial utilizatio… | 208 |
| 2 | US20150300327A1 | Enhanced Geothermal Systems and Methods | 179 |
| 3 | US20140130498A1 | Carbon dioxide-based geothermal energy generation systems and methods related thereto | 148 |
| 4 | US7900450B2 | Thermodynamic power conversion cycle and methods of use | 139 |
| 5 | US20060026961A1 | Method and apparatus for using geothermal energy for the production of power | 139 |
| 6 | US20120001429A1 | Carbon dioxide-based geothermal energy generation systems and methods related thereto | 123 |
| 7 | US20130341029A1 | High strain rate method of producing optimized fracture networks in reservoirs | 106 |
| 8 | US20180224164A1 | Self-contained in-ground geothermal generator and heat exchanger with in-line pump used in several alternativ… | 93 |
| 9 | US20110247816A1 | Method and Apparatus for Increasing Well Productivity | 90 |
| 10 | US20100183903A1 | Utility scale osmotic grid storage | 85 |
Citation counts accumulate over time, so older filings such as the CO2-based geothermal generation records lead the table; treat this as a measure of influence within the searched corpus, not of current commercial relevance.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Three patterns stand out once the ranking, the trend and the class breakdown are read together.
Leadership is real but shallow
The top 5 assignees account for 22.5% of all 583 records and the top 10 for 36.2% — meaningful concentration, but well short of the kind of lockout seen in more mature energy technologies. Most of the field's records sit with the remaining 90 ranked companies and unranked filers, many with only one or two records.
Growth is recent and still building
The three-year run from 2021 to 2024 shows the sharpest sustained increase in the dataset, coinciding with commercial EGS demonstration announcements. Because publication lags filing by around 18 months, the apparent softening in 2025-2026 is a reporting artefact, not evidence the field is slowing.
Drilling and cycle engineering dominate claims
E21B (well drilling), F03G and F24T (geothermal system) classes each sit near or above a third of all records, confirming that stimulation and reservoir-engineering claims and closed-loop thermal-cycle claims are where the density of prior art is highest. Heat-exchanger (F28D), materials (C09K) and refrigeration-cycle (F25B) classes are far thinner.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to enhanced geothermal systems patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the field is still open
The ranking spans 100 companies across 583 records; a handful of specialist geothermal firms, an oilfield-services incumbent and a university lead, but momentum among the named leaders has cooled in the latest year.
A specialist geothermal filer sets the pace
The top-ranked assignee holds 32 records, well ahead of fifth place at 20 and tenth place at 15 — a gradual taper rather than a sharp cliff, consistent with a field still being built out by a mix of specialists and diversified energy and oilfield-services players.
Even active filers are pulling back short-term
Fervo Energy, the only named leader still filing in the latest year (1 record, down 75% year-on-year), illustrates the broader pattern: several previously active assignees, including NCS Multistage at -100% YoY, show zero filings in the latest year. This tracks the publication lag rather than a real drop in R&D.
Collaboration is limited and concentrated
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, the strongest linking a university research programme with a commercial geothermal developer, and a specialist geothermal firm with two named inventors. Co-filing is the exception here, not the norm.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| FERVO ENERGY CO | 1 | -75% |
| Ormat Industries | 0 | — |
| GEOTHERMAL TECH | 0 | — |
| Regents of the University of Minnesota | 0 | — |
| Halliburton Energy Services, Inc. | 0 | — |
| NCS MULTISTAGE | 0 | -100% |
| Oasys Water, Inc. | 0 | — |
| LAKIC NIKOLA | 0 | — |
Where to take this from here
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, competitive tracking or claim drafting.
Check freedom-to-operate in thin classes
Before drafting around downhole heat exchangers, working-fluid chemistry or heat-pump integration, run a focused search against the F28D, C09K and F25B classes specifically, since these carry far fewer records than the drilling and reservoir classes.
Explore this landscape in EurekaTrack the leaders' next moves
The named leaders' filing activity has slowed in the most recent year on the record, but that reading is skewed by publication lag; re-run the assignee momentum view again once 2025-2026 filings finish publishing.
Set up assignee tracking in EurekaMap the CO2-working-fluid cluster in detail
Several of the most-cited records and the representative filing both center on CO2-based or CO2-utilization thermal cycles; a dedicated sub-search of that cluster would clarify how tightly it is already claimed.
Build a focused search in EurekaCommon questions about enhanced geothermal systems patents
Across the 583 records in scope, the leading assignee holds 32 records, with the field tapering gradually to 20 records at fifth place and 15 at tenth. This is a specialist-led field rather than one dominated by a single incumbent: the top 5 assignees combined account for 22.5% of all records and the top 10 for 36.2%, leaving the majority of filings spread across a long tail of 90-plus other ranked companies and unranked entrants. Anyone doing competitive tracking should watch both the named leaders and this long tail, since new entrants have historically driven much of the field's growth.
Filings grew sharply through the early 2020s, rising 77% from 39 records in 2021 to a peak of 69 in 2024. The apparent decline in 2025 and 2026 is not a real slowdown; publication of a filed patent typically lags the filing date by around 18 months, so the most recent one to two years in any patent dataset are always undercounted. Read the 2024 peak, not the tail-end years, as the best available signal of current momentum.
The bulk of claim density sits in three IPC subclasses: E21B (earth and rock drilling, covering well construction and stimulation) at 36.2% of all 583 records, and F03G and F24T (geothermal-specific systems and misc. motors) each at 35.2%. Supporting classes like F28D (heat exchangers), C09K (materials), F01K (steam and thermal power plants) and F25B (refrigeration and heat pumps) appear in a much smaller share of records, each in the single digits to low teens. That gap between the dominant drilling/cycle classes and the thinner supporting classes is a useful signal of where claim space is more open.
US20220082091A1, filed by Tianjin University, claims a specific power-generation architecture combining a geothermal water circulation, a CO2-based mixture working-fluid circulation, and a cooling-water circulation, built around a coaxial pipe-in-pipe downhole heat exchanger and a gravity-driven increasing-pressure endothermic process. It does not block all CO2-based working-fluid designs; it blocks this particular combination of downhole heat-exchanger geometry, pressure profile and binary mixture composition. Anyone designing a CO2-based EGS cycle should read its specific claim limitations rather than avoid CO2 working fluids altogether.
The technology composition data points to heat-exchanger design (F28D), specialty materials for brine and working-fluid loops (C09K), and refrigeration/heat-pump integration (F25B) as comparatively under-claimed relative to drilling and core geothermal-system classes. Within those, downhole coaxial heat exchangers, corrosion-resistant materials for closed-loop brine circuits, and heat-pump integration with EGS output are specific, technically narrow areas with lower filing density. These are not guarantees of clearance, but they are reasonable starting points for a freedom-to-operate search before drafting new claims.
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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.