High-Temperature Solar Thermal Patents: Leaders, Trends & White Space 2026
- Concentration is modest at the top. the leading assignee holds 58 records but the top 5 combined account for only 18.2% of all 934 records in scope, well short of a locked field.
- Filings have pulled back sharply since the 2019 peak. annual filings fell from 51 in 2021 to 7 in 2024, an 86% drop over that span, though 2025-2026 counts are still filling in due to publication lag.
- F24S solar heat collectors dominate the claim space. 52.8% of records carry an F24S class, while adjacent areas like refrigeration/heat pump integration (F25B, 5.4%) and steam generation (F22B, 4.6%) stay comparatively open.
Filing growth compares 2021 (51 records) with 2024 (7) — 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 934 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks 934 published patent records filed or published between 2015 and 2026 that combine high-temperature solar thermal concepts — solar thermal receivers, concentrated solar heat, high-temperature solar collection — with control or performance elements such as temperature sensing, heat flux management, thermal cycling, working-fluid selection, solar irradiance response, or cell efficiency. It spans hardware for capturing and transferring concentrated solar energy as well as the control logic that governs how that heat is measured and moved.
Filing activity peaked in 2019 and has declined markedly since, with the most recent complete year, 2024, sitting far below the 2021 level. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 figures in the trend line are still incomplete and should not be read as confirmation that interest has ended.
Filing trends and technology composition
Annual filing counts and IPC subclass distribution across the 934 records in scope, drawn directly from the published record set.
A decade of filing, front-loaded toward 2017-2021
Filings ran in the mid-to-high 50s per year from 2017 through the 2019 peak of 62, then began a decline that steepened after 2021, reaching 7 by 2024. Treat 2025 and 2026 as provisional given the typical 18-month publication lag.
Collectors and heat-exchange classes carry the bulk of the claim volume
F24S (solar heat collectors) appears on 52.8% of records and F24J on 29.8%, making collector-side hardware the densest claim territory. Downstream classes — F28D heat exchange (10.8%), F01K steam/thermal power (10.0%), F25B refrigeration (5.4%) and F22B steam generation (4.6%) — carry meaningfully less filing density, which is where openings tend to sit.
Shares are the percentage of the 934 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on High-Temperature Solar Thermal Patent Landscape with Eureka
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Try EurekaThe most-cited prior art in this field
Systems and methods for reactor and receiver control of flux profile (US20100242352A1)
This filing describes a solar-driven chemical reactor built around a solar thermal receiver aligned to absorb concentrated solar energy, with multiple reactor tubes and either apertures or windows to admit that energy into the receiver cavity. The concentrated energy impinges on the reactor tubes and cavity walls, transferring heat by radiation, convection and conduction to drive an endothermic reaction in the reacting particles.Filed by Sundrop Fuels, Inc.; published 2010-09-30.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20100263709A1 | Systems for cost-effective concentration and utilization of solar energy | 229 |
| 2 | US4727930A | Heat transfer and storage system | 202 |
| 3 | US20080295883A1 | Adaptive solar concentrator system | 148 |
| 4 | US20060266039A1 | Method and system integrating solar heat into a regenerative rankine steam cycle | 144 |
| 5 | WO2010118503A1 | Systems for cost-effective concentration and utilization of solar energy | 142 |
| 6 | US20090121495A1 | Combined cycle power plant | 141 |
| 7 | US4841946A | Solar collector, transmitter and heater | 137 |
| 8 | US20160047361A1 | System and method using solar thermal energy for power, cogeneration and/or poly-generation using supercritic… | 128 |
| 9 | US20110081586A1 | Systems and methods for sustainable economic development through integrated full spectrum production of renew… | 123 |
| 10 | US5404868A | Apparatus using a balloon supported reflective surface for reflecting light from the sun | 110 |
Citation counts favour older filings simply because they have had more time to accumulate citations within the searched corpus — treat this as a signal of influence on later filers, not of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for filing strategy
Three patterns stand out once the raw counts are set against their proper denominators: a shallow leadership tier, a sharp but recent-year-uncertain filing decline, and an uneven spread of claim density across the technology stack.
No single assignee controls the field
The leader holds 58 records against a 934-record base, and the top 5 combined reach only 18.2% of all records in scope. That leaves a long tail of assignees with much smaller portfolios, so freedom-to-operate analysis has to look well past the largest names.
A steep pullback through the last complete filing year
Annual filings dropped from 51 in 2021 to 7 in 2024, an 86% decline over three years. That is a real contraction in new filing activity through the last year the data can be treated as complete, though it says nothing yet about 2025 or 2026 given publication lag.
Collectors are crowded; steam generation is not
F24S solar heat collectors appear on 52.8% of the 934 records, more than ten times the 4.6% carrying an F22B steam-generation class. New collector-geometry claims face dense prior art; boiler and steam-generation integration claims face far less.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to high-temperature solar thermal patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gaps sit
The ranked leaders span industrial boiler makers, dedicated solar-thermal developers, and research institutions, but no single assignee approaches majority control of the field.
An industrial incumbent tops the ranking
The top-ranked assignee's 58 records outpace the field, but that is still a fraction of the 934-record total, consistent with a field where scale advantage exists without exclusivity.
A moderate drop-off after the leader
Fifth place holds 27 records and tenth place 17, showing a gradual taper rather than a cliff — several organisations have built comparable, if smaller, portfolios in this space.
Co-filing is limited but concentrated where it exists
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, and the strongest pairing links a capital/holding entity with a national laboratory-style partner, pointing to project-structured joint filings rather than broad industry alliances.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Vast Solar Pty Ltd | 1 | — |
| The Babcock & Wilcox Co | 0 | — |
| 8 Rivers Capital LLC | 0 | — |
| Areva Solar Inc | 0 | — |
| Sundrop Fuels Inc | 0 | — |
| XYZ Energy Group LLC | 0 | — |
| CBE Global Hldg | 0 | — |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, sourcing, or identifying open claim territory.
Map claims against the collector-class crowding
With 52.8% of records touching F24S, any new collector-geometry filing needs a close prior-art review before drafting claims.
Explore the technology in EurekaWatch the mid-tier for acquisition or licensing targets
Assignees ranked fifth through tenth hold meaningful but non-dominant portfolios, making them plausible partners or acquisition targets rather than blockers.
Run an assignee deep-dive in EurekaTrack whether the 2021-2024 decline reverses
Because 2025-2026 filings are still incomplete, a follow-up pull once the lag clears will show whether the pullback continues or was cyclical.
Set up monitoring in EurekaCommon questions on the high-temperature solar thermal landscape
The leading assignee in this dataset holds 58 of the 934 records in scope, ahead of a fifth-place holder at 27 and a tenth-place holder at 17. The top 5 combined account for only 18.2% of all records, and the top 10 for 28.5%, so no single company controls the field. Freedom-to-operate work should look beyond the largest names to the long tail of smaller portfolios.
Filings peaked in 2019 at 62 and declined to 7 by 2024, an 86% drop from the 2021 level of 51. That decline covers the most recent year that can be treated as complete; 2025 and 2026 counts are still incomplete because publication typically lags filing by about 18 months. Read the recent contraction as real through 2024, but do not extrapolate it into the most current years yet.
Solar heat collectors (IPC class F24S) appear on 52.8% of the 934 records, and the broader F24J grouping covers 29.8%, making collector-side hardware the densest area of claim coverage. Heat-exchange apparatus (F28D) and steam/thermal power plant classes (F01K) each sit around 10%, considerably less crowded. These shares overlap because individual records can carry multiple IPC classes.
The lowest-density classes among those tracked are F22B steam generation and boilers at 4.6% and F25B refrigeration/heat pumps at 5.4% of the 934 records, both far below the F24S collector class at 52.8%. That gap suggests claim territory around steam-generation coupling and refrigeration-cycle integration with solar thermal loops is comparatively open. Semiconductor-based flux sensing (H01L, 8.6%) also trails the collector classes and is worth a closer prior-art check before assuming it is occupied.
US20100242352A1, assigned to Sundrop Fuels, Inc. and published in 2010, covers a solar-driven chemical reactor with a solar thermal receiver, multiple reactor tubes, and apertures or windows admitting concentrated solar energy that drives an endothermic reaction through radiative, convective and conductive heat transfer. It is one of the more heavily cited records in this dataset, meaning many later filings reference it as background art. Whether it actually blocks a new filing depends on the specific claim language around receiver-tube geometry and energy-admission structures, which requires a direct claim-chart comparison rather than reliance on the abstract alone.
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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.