Tidal Energy Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- No single filer dominates. the leader holds 96 records and the top 5 combined account for just 7.8% of all 4,596 records in scope — a long tail, not a concentrated field.
- Filing has cooled from its 2022 peak. activity hit 303 records that year, then eased; using the last complete years, 2021's 234 fell to 189 by 2024, a 19% pullback that predates any drop-off explained by publication lag.
- Hydraulic machinery still absorbs nearly half the field. F03B (hydraulic machines & engines) touches 44.7% of records, while grid integration and power electronics classes sit well behind at under 15% each.
Filing growth compares 2021 (234 records) with 2024 (189) — 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 4,596 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This landscape draws on 4,596 published records matched to tidal energy conversion, resource assessment and grid integration claims filed between 2015 and mid-2026. It spans hydraulic turbine hardware, generator and power-electronics control, and the hybrid systems that pair tidal converters with wind or wave energy on shared support structures. The scope favours engineering claims over siting or policy documents, so the counts below reflect how converters are built and controlled rather than where projects are permitted.
Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the most recent one to two years in any trend understate real filing activity; treat 2025 and 2026 figures as still filling in rather than as a genuine slowdown.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 4,596-record dataset: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses the claims actually sit in.
Filing trend, 2017–2026
Filings rose from 196 in 2017 to a peak of 303 in 2022, then eased to 189 by 2024 (a 19% pullback from 2021's 234) before the partial, still-incomplete 2025–2026 years.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
F03B (hydraulic machines & engines) covers 44.7% of the 4,596 records in scope, well ahead of F03D wind motors at 15.1% and H02J power-supply/grid systems at 14.7%; H02K generators, E02B waterway engineering, C25B electrolysis, H02P motor control and H01M batteries each sit under 6%. Records can carry more than one class, so these shares add up to more than 100%.
Shares are the percentage of the 4,596 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Tidal Energy Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about tidal energy patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaA representative record
Wind energy, wave energy and tidal energy integrated power generation system based on monopile foundation (US10890162B2)
A wind energy, wave energy and tidal energy integrated power generation system based on monopile foundation, in which the wind energy, wave energy and tidal energy will share the support structure and power transmission system, belongs to the technical field of ocean renewable energy utilization. An integrated power generation system which integrates wind energy converter, oscillating water column wave energy converter and horizontal-axis tidal energy converter is established based on the monopile support structure. The invention makes sufficient use of offshore renewable resources, so as to improve the utilization ratio of monopile foundation and reduce the total cost of power generation of the combined system.Filed by Dalian University of Technology, published 2021-01-12.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20080046387A1 | System and method for policy based control of local electrical energy generation and use | 442 |
| 2 | US20100138363A1 | Smart grid price response service for dynamically balancing energy supply and demand | 338 |
| 3 | US8604746B2 | Contactless power charging system and energy storage system including the same | 289 |
| 4 | US6109863A | Submersible appartus for generating electricity and associated method | 274 |
| 5 | US20040021437A1 | Adaptive electric motors and generators providing improved performance and efficiency | 233 |
| 6 | US20090138415A1 | Automated research systems and methods for researching systems | 230 |
| 7 | US20140217955A1 | Charge apparatus | 213 |
| 8 | US20170104449A1 | Photovoltaic energy system with solar intensity prediction | 205 |
| 9 | US20050097179A1 | Spam prevention | 205 |
| 10 | US20050048334A1 | Combined energy storage and fuel generation with reversible fuel cells | 200 |
Citation counts reward older filings that have had more time to accumulate citations within this corpus — read them as a signal of influence on the field, not of current technical importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Put your own technology through the same analysis
Eureka on the web
When you want the answer in the next five minutes.
The agent works the prompt against patents and technical literature, citing every source.
Run your analysis now →MCP server & REST API
When it has to run inside your own pipeline.
Patent search, landscape analysis and assignee resolution as MCP tools. Drop them into any agent framework, or call REST directly.
Browse MCP servers →What the filing pattern tells you
Four patterns in the dataset matter more for filing strategy than the headline counts.
No single company controls the field
The leader holds 96 records, but the top 5 assignees combined account for only 7.8% of all 4,596 records in scope, and the top 10 for 12.9%. That is a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants rather than a field locked up by two or three incumbents.
Activity has cooled from its peak, not collapsed
Filings rose steadily to a 2022 peak of 303 records, then pulled back to 189 by 2024 — a 19% decline from 2021's 234. That is a real cooling over a three-year window that ends before publication lag distorts the picture, not a signal drawn from the still-incomplete 2025–2026 years.
Hydraulic machinery still dominates the claim space
F03B (hydraulic machines & engines) touches 44.7% of records, nearly three times the share of the next largest class, F03D wind motors at 15.1%. Grid integration (H02J, 14.7%) and generator/control classes each sit under 6%, suggesting the mechanical converter is still where most claim activity concentrates.
US, EPO and WIPO lead filing routes
The United States receives the most filings at 1,036, ahead of Europe (EPO) at 574 and WIPO/PCT at 523; China (495), India (345) and the United Kingdom (339) follow. That spread points to applicants pursuing multi-jurisdiction protection through PCT routes rather than concentrating in a single office.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to tidal energy patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Assignee landscape and where claims are thin
The ranked leaders sit well below the concentration seen in some other energy technologies, and recent-year momentum has cooled across the board — none of the six most-cited assignees logged a filing in the latest year, consistent with the 2022 peak and subsequent pullback.
A leader without a lock
The top-ranked assignee holds 96 records against a field of 4,596 — a meaningful lead in raw count, but nowhere near the share needed to control freedom to operate across the whole technology.
A long tail below the top ten
By the tenth position the count has already fallen to 45 records, and the top 10 combined still represent only 12.9% of all records in scope. Most of the ranked field is made up of companies with far smaller, more specialised filing footprints.
Recent-year filing has gone quiet at the top
Several of the most active historical assignees recorded no filings in the latest year, mirroring the broader cooling from 2022's peak. Given the roughly 18-month publication lag, this understates true recent activity but still signals reduced urgency among incumbents.
Collaboration is limited and concentrated
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, and the strongest links all involve the same corporate group paired with individual named inventors. Co-filing is not yet a common strategy in this field.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| AW Energy | 0 | — |
| Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. | 0 | — |
| ZBB Energy Corporation | 0 | — |
| SUSTAINABLE MARINE ENERGY | 0 | — |
| Rotech Holdings | 0 | — |
| Hangzhou LHD Institute of New Energy | 0 | — |
| EnSync, Inc. | 0 | — |
Where to take this next
The dataset points to specific follow-up questions rather than a single conclusion.
Map freedom to operate against the hydraulic converter classes
With 44.7% of records sitting in F03B, a freedom-to-operate check on any new converter design should start there before looking at generator or grid-integration claims.
Explore F03B claims in EurekaTrack the under-claimed hybrid and control branches
Hybrid monopile structures and adaptive control for variable flow show thinner claim density than the core hardware classes, making them worth monitoring for early filings before the space fills in.
Set up monitoring in EurekaWatch for a rebound once 2025–2026 filings publish fully
The apparent pullback after 2022 is partly a publication-lag artefact; revisit the trend once the most recent filing years have had time to fully publish.
Revisit trends in EurekaCommon questions about tidal energy patents
The leading assignee in this dataset holds 96 records out of 4,596 in scope, but that lead does not translate into control of the field: the top 5 assignees combined account for only 7.8% of all records, and the top 10 for 12.9%. In practice this means the ranked leaders (100 companies in the full ranking) sit atop a long tail of smaller filers rather than a two- or three-company oligopoly. Anyone assessing freedom to operate should check the full ranked list rather than assuming the top name controls the space.
Filing activity rose from 196 records in 2017 to a peak of 303 in 2022, then pulled back to 189 by 2024 — a 19% decline over that three-year span. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the 2025–2026 figures in the raw trend are still filling in and should not be read as evidence of a further slowdown. Based on the last complete years, the honest read is a cooling from a 2022 peak rather than a field in decline.
Hydraulic machinery and engine design (IPC class F03B) dominates, touching 44.7% of the 4,596 records in scope. Wind motor technology (F03D, 15.1%) and grid/power-supply systems (H02J, 14.7%) follow well behind, with generator, waterway engineering, electrolysis, motor control and battery classes each under 6%. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares add up to more than 100% and should not be read as a strict pie chart.
US10890162B2, filed by Dalian University of Technology and published 2021-01-12, covers an integrated power generation system combining wind, wave and tidal energy converters sharing a single monopile support structure and transmission system. It specifically claims the combination of a wind converter, an oscillating water column wave converter and a horizontal-axis tidal converter built on that shared foundation. A team designing a hybrid platform should review this claim scope closely if their design also shares structure and transmission across more than one renewable source on a monopile base, though alternative foundation types or non-monopile sharing arrangements may sit outside its claims.
The technology composition data shows dense claim activity in hydraulic converter hardware (F03B) but comparatively thin coverage in adjacent branches: hybrid multi-source structures, tidal-linked electrolysis for hydrogen production, adaptive control for variable flow conditions, and battery buffering of tidal output. These branches sit close to well-claimed core classes but have not accumulated the same filing density, which is where a first-mover claim is more likely to secure clean scope. Confirming this requires a targeted search rather than relying on the aggregate IPC shares alone.
Research Tidal Energy Patent Landscape in depth with Eureka
Go past this page: query the whole tidal energy patent landscape corpus yourself, in your own scope.
Every answer comes back with patent numbers you can open.
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.