Floating Wind Turbine Patent Landscape 2026
Floating Wind Turbine Patent Landscape in 2026
Floating wind turbine IP is a moderately concentrated, maturing field of 2,859 patent families, with Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy holding a clear lead and the top five filers collectively dominating a third of the hundred largest filers’ combined output. Filing volumes expanded strongly through 2023 and have since eased from that peak, while Europe (EPO) remains the primary protection jurisdiction.
Siemens Gamesa leads a moderately concentrated field
Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy heads
The top five filers — Siemens Gamesa, University of Maine, Principle Power, Vestas Wind Systems, and Equinor Energy — together account for 33% of the hundred largest filers’ combined total, indicating moderate concentration with meaningful activity distributed across a broader set of challengers.
| # | Applicant | Patent families | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy AS | 270 | |
| 2 | University of Maine | 194 | |
| 3 | Principle Power Inc | 158 | |
| 4 | Vestas Wind Systems AS | 140 | |
| 5 | Equinor Energy AS | 96 | |
| 6 | IFP Energies Nouvelles | 79 | |
| 7 | Lone Gull Holdings Ltd | 66 | |
| 8 | Single Buoy Moorings Inc | 64 | |
| 9 | Aerodyn Consulting Singapore Pte Ltd | 61 | |
| 10 | Hitachi Ltd | 58 |
| # | Applicant | Patent families | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | Stiesdal Offshore AS | 52 | |
| 12 | Technip Energies France SAS | 51 | |
| 13 | Gerald L. Barber | 43 | |
| 14 | MHI Vestas Offshore Wind AS | 42 | |
| 15 | Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd | 40 | |
| 16 | Exponential Renewables SL | 38 | |
| 17 | GE Renewable Technology Wind BV | 37 | |
| 18 | Subsea 7 Norway AS | 35 | |
| 19 | GOLDWIND SCI & TECH CO LTD | 34 | |
| 20 | RCAM Technologies Inc | 31 |
The presence of both industrial turbine manufacturers (Siemens Gamesa, Vestas) and specialist floating-platform developers (Principle Power, Equinor) in the top tier signals that IP leadership spans the full system stack, making cross-disciplinary freedom-to-operate analysis essential for new entrants.
Filing counts for 2024 and 2025 are subject to patent publication lag and will rise as pending applications are published; the apparent decline from the 2023 peak should not be read as a real drop in inventive activity. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
Activity plateaued near its 2023 peak; wind-turbine and marine-vessel classes dominate
The annual filing trend and technology-class breakdown together reveal a field that expanded rapidly from 2019 to 2023 and is now plateauing, while the technology mix shows a clear core flanked by a wide range of enabling adjacent disciplines.
Annual filing trend
Filings grew from 166 patent families in 2017 to a peak of 494 in 2023 before easing; 2024 and 2025 counts are still accumulating due to publication lag and should not be interpreted as a genuine decline.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
F03D (wind motors) and B63B (ships and marine vessels) are overwhelmingly dominant, reflecting the dual engineering challenge of turbine control and floating structure design; secondary branches including F03B (hydraulic machines), E02B (waterway engineering), and E02D (foundations) capture enabling sub-systems at much lower volumes.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaHighly cited patent families surfaced by the query
Citation-heavy patent families returned by the query. Use this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents.
Floating offshore wind turbine integrated with ste…
A floating offshore wind turbine integrated with a steel fish farming cage mainly includes a wind turbine, a wind turbine tower, a living quarter, a floating wind turbine foundation in a conic steel structure, a mooring system, a lateral net encircling the floating wind turbine foundation, a bottom net, and lifting systems. The upper end of the wind turbine… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Column-stabilized offshore platform with water-ent… | 224 |
| 2 | Floating offshore wind turbine | 186 |
| 3 | Floating offshore wind farm, a floating offshore w… | 115 |
| 4 | Column-stabilized offshore platform with water-ent… | 110 |
| 5 | Plant for exploiting wind energy at sea | 103 |
| 6 | Wind energy power plant and method of construction | 98 |
| 7 | Power generation assemblies and apparatus | 97 |
| 8 | Power generation assemblies, and apparatus for use… | 94 |
Ranked by total forward citations. Citation counts favour older and broadly cited patent families, and broad or adjacent patents may appear when they match the search scope. Treat this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents. Some patent titles may be shown in their original, non-English language where an accurate translation could not be guaranteed.
What the IP structure means for R&D strategy
The combination of a maturing filing trend, moderate concentration, active co-filing partnerships, and broad multi-jurisdictional coverage shapes the competitive options available to both incumbents and new entrants.
Field is plateauing near its 2023 peak
The lifecycle stage is Maturity: annual filings plateaued near their 2023 peak of 494 patent families, and the multi-year window still shows positive growth at 17%. For R&D planners, this means foundational platform and turbine-control claims are largely staked; differentiation now depends on sub-system innovation in areas such as mooring, installation, and grid integration rather than broad system-level patents.
Lifecycle · MaturityTop tier is clear but not overwhelming
The top five filers hold 33% of the hundred largest filers’ combined total, leaving significant room for challengers ranked 6–20 — including IFP Energies Nouvelles, Lone Gull Holdings, Single Buoy Moorings, and Aerodyn Consulting — to grow relative positions. A challenger entering with focused sub-system IP faces a defined but navigable incumbent landscape rather than a near-monopoly.
Concentration · ModerateIFP Energies Nouvelles and Technip Energies are the most active co-filers
The most active co-filing pair is IFP Energies Nouvelles and Technip Energies France, with 11 jointly filed patent families — a research-to-engineering partnership linking a public energy research institute with a major offshore contractor. University of Maine and the Alliance for Sustainable Energy have co-filed 3 patent families, reflecting an academic-national-lab collaboration track. Both partnerships suggest that flotation-system and mooring R&D benefits from structured alliances rather than purely proprietary development.
Collaboration · ActiveEurope and the US are primary protection targets; Asia growing
Europe (EPO) is the lead jurisdiction by patent records, followed closely by the United States and WIPO (PCT) filings. China ranks fourth, with South Korea, the UK, Germany, Australia, and Norway also receiving substantial coverage — reflecting the geographic spread of offshore wind deployment pipelines. Applicants targeting Asia-Pacific markets should note that South Korea and Australia already see meaningful filing volumes, while Japan and Taiwan are active at lower levels.
Geography · Multi-regionGo beyond the landscape: Eureka’s TRIZ Solution agent breaks down an R&D problem and returns patented concept solutions, each with a technical approach and cited patent & literature evidence.
| Applicant | Collaborator | Co-filings |
|---|---|---|
| IFP Energies Nouvelles | Techlam | 11 |
| University of Maine | Alliance for Sustainable Energy LLC | 3 |
Co-filing pairs, ranked by the number of jointly-filed patent families.
Siemens Gamesa leads on turbine control; Vestas accelerating as a challenger
The two leading applicants illustrate diverging trajectories: the incumbent leader is expanding its already large portfolio, while the principal challenger has accelerated sharply in the most recent window.
Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy
With 270 patent families, Siemens Gamesa holds the largest portfolio in this field. Its technology emphasis centres on wind-turbine control and operation (F03D 7, 131 families), floating and offshore installation systems (F03D 13, 95 families), and turbine ancillary equipment (F03D 80, 52 families). Recent filings of 150 patent families represent a 35% increase over the prior three-year window, signalling active portfolio reinforcement rather than consolidation.
patent families: 270Vestas Wind Systems
Vestas Wind Systems ranks fourth with 140 patent families and is the fastest-growing among the leading incumbents, with recent filings up 69% versus the prior three-year window. Its focus spans turbine control (F03D 7, 47 families), floating installation (F03D 13, 30 families), and turbine structural components (F03D 11, 25 families) — a profile closely aligned with Siemens Gamesa’s, suggesting direct competitive overlap in core technology routes.
patent families: 140| Applicant | Recent (3 yrs) | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy AS | 150 | ▲ +35% |
| University of Maine | 23 | ▼ -26% |
| Principle Power Inc | 12 | ▼ -57% |
| Equinor Energy AS | 26 | ▼ -55% |
| Vestas Wind Systems AS | 27 | ▲ +69% |
| IFP Energies Nouvelles | 4 | ▲ new entrant |
| Aerodyn Consulting Singapore Pte Ltd | 8 | ▼ -58% |
Under-served branches adjacent to the dominant core
Several IPC classes appear at materially lower filing volumes relative to the dominant F03D and B63B core, pointing to branches where technical activity exists but IP coverage remains comparatively sparse.
F03B · Hydraulic Machines & Engines
With 309 patent records against F03D’s 3,238, hydraulic machinery sub-systems — including hydraulic power take-off and pitch-control actuators — are an adjacent branch that is under-served relative to the core. Floating turbines increasingly use hydraulic drivetrains and motion-compensation systems, giving this branch plausible technical value. An entrant with hydraulic drivetrain expertise and familiarity with offshore standards has a realistic path to differentiated IP here.
Search this in Eureka →E02B · Hydraulic & Waterway Engineering
The waterway and hydraulic engineering branch (E02B, 205 patent records) covers mooring-system hydrodynamics, harbour and port infrastructure for turbine assembly, and tidal-interaction structures — all relevant to floating wind farm deployment but filed at low volumes relative to the turbine and vessel core. Organisations with coastal or offshore civil-engineering capabilities could find this branch an accessible entry point for IP that complements rather than directly challenges the dominant turbine-control incumbents.
Search this in Eureka →How leading applicants differ by technology route
Strength of each leader across the main technology routes.
| Player | F03D 13 · Wind motors (wind turbines) | B63B 35 · Ships & marine vessels | B63B 21 · Ships & marine vessels | F03D 7 · Wind motors (wind turbines) | F03D 9 · Wind motors (wind turbines) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy AS | Strong · 95 | Moderate · 48 | Emerging · 23 | Strong · 131 | Moderate · 45 |
| University of Maine | Strong · 113 | Strong · 111 | Moderate · 36 | Absent | Moderate · 37 |
| Principle Power Inc | Moderate · 46 | Strong · 98 | Absent | Strong · 54 | Moderate · 38 |
| Equinor Energy AS | Strong · 73 | Moderate · 34 | Moderate · 22 | Strong · 54 | Absent |
| Stiesdal Offshore AS | Strong · 33 | Absent | Moderate · 31 | Strong · 62 | Strong · 34 |
| Single Buoy Moorings Inc | Strong · 37 | Strong · 44 | Strong · 45 | Absent | Absent |
| Aerodyn Consulting Singapore Pte Ltd | Strong · 48 | Strong · 30 | Absent | Absent | Absent |
Frequently asked questions
The evidence set contains 2,859 patent families in scope for floating wind turbine technology globally.
Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy AS leads with 270 patent families, ahead of second-ranked University of Maine at 194 patent families.
Europe (EPO) is the primary protection jurisdiction by patent records, followed by the United States and WIPO (PCT) international applications.
The field reached a filing peak in 2023 and annual volume has since eased from that peak, though the multi-year window still shows positive growth of 17%. The lifecycle stage is assessed as Maturity. Counts for 2024 and 2025 remain subject to publication lag.
F03D (wind motors) and B63B (ships and marine vessels) are overwhelmingly dominant, reflecting the dual turbine-engineering and floating-structure challenge. Secondary classes include F03B (hydraulic machines), E02B (waterway engineering), and E02D (foundations and drilling).
Yes. The most active co-filing pair is IFP Energies Nouvelles and Technip Energies France, with 11 jointly filed patent families. University of Maine and the Alliance for Sustainable Energy have co-filed 3 patent families, representing a separate academic-national-lab collaboration track.
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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.
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