Offshore Wind Foundation Patent Landscape 2026
The offshore wind foundation space is moderately concentrated, with University of Maine and Principle Power Inc. jointly leading at the top of the ranking. Filing activity peaked in 2022 and has eased since, though the most recent years remain subject to publication lag.
A Duopoly at the Top, With European Institutions Close Behind
University of Maine and Principle Power Inc. share the lead position in this space, each holding 66 patent families, followed by Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (48), Equinor Energy (38), and Freia Offshore AB (35). Together, the top five account for 36% of the combined total across the hundred largest filers.
The tier gap between the top two and the rest of the top five is modest, but a sharper drop-off appears from rank six onward—Single Buoy Moorings (23) and Aerodyn Consulting Singapore (22) lead a mid-tier cluster that thins out quickly below 15 patent families per applicant.
| # | Applicant | Patent families | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | University of Maine | 66 | |
| 2 | Principle Power Inc. | 66 | |
| 3 | Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy AS | 48 | |
| 4 | Equinor Energy AS | 38 | |
| 5 | Freia Offshore AB | 35 | |
| 6 | Single Buoy Moorings Inc. | 23 | |
| 7 | Aerodyn Consulting Singapore Pte Ltd | 22 | |
| 8 | Vestas Wind Systems AS | 20 | |
| 9 | GOLDWIND SCI & TECH CO LTD | 15 | |
| 10 | Huaneng Clean Energy Research Institute | 13 |
| # | Applicant | Patent families | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | Technip Energies France SAS | 13 | |
| 12 | SIF Holding NV | 11 | |
| 13 | Fred Olsen Ocean Ltd | 11 | |
| 14 | French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) | 11 | |
| 15 | Shanghai Jiao Tong University | 10 | |
| 16 | Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School | 10 | |
| 17 | PAUL A FRIEZE & ASSOCS | 9 | |
| 18 | PowerChina Huadong Engineering Corporation Ltd | 9 | |
| 19 | Seaway 7 Engineering BV | 9 | |
| 20 | APL Norway AS | 9 |
The co-leadership of an American research university and a specialized floating-platform developer signals that foundational platform design and academic invention remain central drivers, rather than vertically integrated turbine OEMs alone. European energy operators (Equinor, Siemens Gamesa) hold strong third- and fourth-place positions, reflecting the sector’s geographic center of gravity.
Filings from 2024 and 2025 are materially under-counted due to standard patent publication lag of 18–24 months; the apparent recent decline should not be read as a structural contraction until 2026 data matures. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
Peak Activity in 2022, Broad Wind-Turbine and Marine-Vessel Coverage
Annual filings climbed from 43 in 2017 to a peak of 110 in 2022, then eased in subsequent years—a pattern consistent with a maturing field, with the caveat that 2024–2026 figures are still accumulating. The technology mix is dominated by wind-turbine and marine-vessel classifications, with a long tail of civil- and ocean-engineering branches.
Annual filing trend
Filings rose steadily from 2017 through 2022, reaching 110 at peak, then fell to 74 in 2023 and 60 in 2024. The 2025 and 2026 values (34 and 2 respectively) are severely under-counted due to publication lag and should not be treated as indicative of the current pace.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
F03D (wind motors/turbines) and B63B (ships and marine vessels) together account for the overwhelming share of classified records, reflecting the hybrid wind-engineering and naval-architecture character of floating foundation design. E02B (hydraulic and waterway engineering) and E02D (foundations and earth drilling) appear at notably lower counts, suggesting civil-engineering framing is secondary in current filings.
↗ 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.
Shared floating wind turbine foundation array with…
A shared floating wind turbine foundation array with angle-adjustable elastic moorings is formed by connecting floating wind turbine foundations. Each floating wind turbine foundation includes a wind turbine tower, upper pontoons, a truss framework, lower mooring drums, a lower wind turbine hollow pile, a fixed static mooring line and a shared anchor; the… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Column-stabilized offshore platform with water-ent… | 224 |
| 2 | Column-stabilized offshore platform with water-ent… | 199 |
| 3 | Offshore floating wind power generation plant | 111 |
| 4 | Floating Wind Turbine Platform and Method of Assem… | 83 |
| 5 | A floating wind turbine and a method for the insta… | 72 |
| 6 | 半潜式海上浮动风机基础 | 59 |
| 7 | 半潜式海上浮动风机基础 | 56 |
| 8 | 可自浮安装的张力腿式海上浮动风机基础及其安装方法 | 54 |
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 Competitive Structure Means for R&D Investment
Four dimensions—maturity, concentration, collaboration, and geography—together define the strategic terrain for new entrants and incumbents alike.
Past-Peak Field With Active Incumbents
The lifecycle evidence places this field in decline, with annual filings easing back from the 2022 peak of 110. The multi-year body of 645 patent families indicates a substantive prior-art landscape that new entrants must navigate carefully. Incremental platform improvements and installation-method patents are likely to dominate near-term filings over radical new concepts.
Lifecycle: DeclineModerate Top-Tier Concentration, Fragmented Mid-Tier
The top five filers hold 36% of the combined total across the hundred largest filers, indicating moderate concentration without a single dominant lock-in. The mid-tier from rank six onward is fragmented—over a dozen applicants hold between 9 and 23 patent families—creating multiple potential licensing targets or acquisition candidates for consolidators.
Top-5 share: 36%No Co-Applicant Patterns Detected in Current Evidence
The collaboration evidence is pending for this corpus; no co-applicant filing clusters have been identified in the available data. The presence of both academic institutions (University of Maine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, CNRS) and industry players in the top ranks suggests that university-industry co-filing activity may exist but is not yet surfaced in this dataset.
Evidence pendingEurope and the US Lead; Asia Filing Volume Growing
The European Patent Office leads all jurisdictions, followed by the United States and WIPO PCT filings, reflecting where the largest commercial offshore wind markets and regulatory frameworks are established. China (109 records) ranks fourth, and the presence of Chinese applicants such as Goldwind and Huaneng Clean Energy Research Institute in the top-ten ranking indicates a growing domestic IP strategy. Nordic jurisdictions (Denmark, Norway, Sweden) each appear, consistent with the home markets of key operators.
Lead office: EPOGo 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.
Co-filing pairs, ranked by the number of jointly-filed patent families.
University of Maine and Principle Power Lead; OEM Momentum Declining
The two co-leaders occupy structurally different positions: one is an academic R&D institution, the other a commercial floating-platform developer. Both face the same slowing-momentum environment visible across the top tier.
University of Maine
University of Maine holds 66 patent families, tied for first place, with a primary focus spanning marine vessel structures (B63B 35) and offshore wind turbine integration (F03D 13). Its momentum is flagged as a new entrant in the most recent measurement window (4 recent families), suggesting the institution’s filing activity is in an early phase relative to its accumulated portfolio—likely reflecting a focused research program rather than a continuous commercial filing machine.
Families: 66Principle Power Inc.
Principle Power Inc. also holds 66 patent families and concentrates most heavily on marine vessel hull and stabilization technology (B63B 35, B63B 39) alongside offshore turbine mounting (F03D 13), consistent with its WindFloat semi-submersible platform focus. Recent momentum shows a 50% decline versus the prior three-year window (8 recent families), indicating the portfolio is maturing rather than expanding aggressively.
Families: 66| Applicant | Recent (3 yrs) | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| University of Maine | 4 | ▲ new entrant |
| Principle Power Inc. | 8 | ▼ -50% |
| Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy AS | 13 | ▼ -62% |
| Equinor Energy AS | 7 | ▼ -77% |
| Freia Offshore AB | 2 | ▼ -94% |
| Aerodyn Consulting Singapore Pte Ltd | 2 | ▲ new entrant |
Under-Served Civil-Engineering and Installation-Equipment Branches
Against a backdrop dominated by wind-turbine and marine-vessel classifications, several technically adjacent IPC branches show sparse filing counts—making them worth monitoring as potential areas where differentiated work could face less prior-art crowding.
E02D · Foundations & Earth Drilling
With only 58 classified records and a 3% share among the top branches, geotechnical and seabed-anchoring methods are sparsely covered relative to the overall corpus. As floating foundations move from prototype to commercial-scale deployment, site-specific anchoring and load-transfer engineering become critical—yet the IP density here remains low. Teams with expertise in suction-bucket, driven-pile, or rock-socket foundation technology could find relatively open ground.
Search this in Eureka →B66C · Cranes & Hoists
Only 20 classified records appear under B66C (cranes and hoists), representing 1% of the branch distribution. Installation logistics—lifting, upending, and positioning large floating substructures—are an acknowledged bottleneck for commercial-scale floating wind deployment, yet this branch is thinly populated. Adjacent work on specialized offshore lifting vessels, dynamic load-monitoring during installation, or novel upending rigs could represent a differentiated entry path with limited direct prior art to design around.
Search this in Eureka →How Leaders Differ by Technology Route
Route coverage across the main technology branches in the current evidence set.
| Player | F03D 13 · Wind motors (wind turbines) | B63B 35 · Ships & marine vessels | B63B 21 · Ships & marine vessels | F03D 7 · Wind motors (wind turbines) | B63B 1 · Ships & marine vessels |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Principle Power Inc. | Moderate · 29 | Strong · 60 | Absent | Moderate · 23 | Moderate · 18 |
| University of Maine | Strong · 50 | Strong · 50 | Moderate · 14 | Absent | Moderate · 12 |
| Freia Offshore AB | Strong · 35 | Strong · 34 | Strong · 28 | Absent | Strong · 28 |
| Equinor Energy AS | Strong · 41 | Moderate · 20 | Moderate · 19 | Strong · 27 | Absent |
| Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy AS | Strong · 36 | Strong · 22 | Emerging · 7 | Strong · 27 | Absent |
| Single Buoy Moorings Inc. | Strong · 24 | Strong · 24 | Strong · 24 | Absent | Moderate · 6 |
| Aerodyn Consulting Singapore Pte Ltd | Strong · 19 | Strong · 15 | Strong · 10 | Absent | Moderate · 5 |
Frequently asked questions
The current evidence set contains 645 patent families in scope for offshore wind foundation technology on a global basis.
University of Maine and Principle Power Inc. are co-leaders, each holding 66 patent families. Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (48), Equinor Energy (38), and Freia Offshore AB (35) form the next tier.
The European Patent Office leads with 200 patent records, followed by the United States (185), WIPO PCT (114), and China (109). This distribution reflects both the established commercial markets in Europe and the growing Chinese domestic program.
Annual filings peaked at 110 in 2022 and have eased since. The lifecycle evidence characterizes the field as in decline from that peak. Figures for 2024 and 2025 are under-counted due to publication lag, so the current pace cannot yet be confirmed from available data.
E02D (foundations and earth drilling) and B66C (cranes and hoists) are among the lower-density branches relative to the dominant F03D and B63B classes, with 58 and 20 classified records respectively. These represent adjacent areas where IP crowding is lower.
The most-cited documents in the corpus relate to column-stabilized offshore platforms (the top two cited works each exceed 190 citations), offshore floating wind power generation plants, and floating wind turbine platform assembly methods. Semi-submersible floating wind turbine foundations also appear prominently among heavily cited Chinese-origin documents.
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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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