Wind-Farm O&M Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- Filings jumped 450% between 2021 and 2024 climbing from 2 to 11 records a year, with 2024 the last complete filing year in the dataset.
- The top 5 assignees hold 52.4% of all 103 records and the top 10 hold 72.8% — concentration is real but not absolute, leaving room past the leaders.
- Control and AI-adjacent classes are rising fast G06N (AI models) touches 9.7% of records and G06Q (business/admin data) 12.6%, both smaller than core F03D turbine claims but growing footprints.
Filing growth compares 2021 (2 records) with 2024 (11) — 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 103 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This review covers 103 published records matched on wind-farm operations and maintenance language crossed with core control terms — wind speed, rotor torque, blade pitch, generator torque and tower structure. The search string deliberately pairs operational/maintenance framing with the technical levers turbines actually expose, so the corpus skews toward control and monitoring claims rather than blade materials or foundation engineering.
Coverage runs from 2015 through the 2026-08-31 cut-off. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 counts in any trend view are still filling in and should not be read as a slowdown.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 103-record corpus: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claims.
Filing trend, 2017–2026
Annual filings rose from 8 in 2017 to a peak of 11 in 2024, having grown from just 2 filings in 2021 — a +450% increase over that three-year span. 2025 and 2026 counts are partial and will rise as later publications catch up.
IPC subclass composition
F03D (wind motors) anchors the field at 68.9% of the 103 records. H02J (power supply and grid systems) and G05B (control and regulating systems) follow at 16.5% and 14.6%. Software-adjacent classes — G06Q, H04L, G06N and G06F — each touch between roughly 9% and 13% of records, and a record can carry more than one class so these figures overlap rather than sum to 100%.
Shares are the percentage of the 103 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Wind-Farm Operations & Maintenance Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about wind-farm operations & maintenance patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records and a representative filing
Active wake control across a wind farm (US20250101946A1)
A reduction in wake effects in large wind farms through wake-aware control can improve farm efficiency. The wake of a wind turbine presents complications for nearby turbines, depending on the atmospheric conditions, turbine characteristics, and turbine siting. The nascent field of wind farm flow control seeks to reduce the deleterious effects of the wake momentum deficit by leveraging the turbine as a flow actuator though the intelligent scheduling of either the blade pitch, rotor speed, or nacelle yaw.Filed by National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, published 2025-03-27.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20020194113A1 | System, method and computer program product for risk-minimization and mutual insurance relations in meteorolo… | 305 |
| 2 | US20150308416A1 | Systems and methods for optimizing operation of a wind farm | 99 |
| 3 | EP2236821A1 | Wind farm island operation | 82 |
| 4 | US20160146190A1 | Systems and methods for optimizing operation of a wind farm | 77 |
| 5 | US20120146423A1 | Wind farm island operation | 61 |
| 6 | US20180010576A1 | Wind turbine wake steering apparatus | 46 |
| 7 | US20170310483A1 | Data management systems and methods | 44 |
| 8 | US7430534B2 | System, method and computer program product for risk-minimization and mutual insurance relations in meteorolo… | 43 |
| 9 | EP2940296A1 | Systems and methods for optimizing operation of a wind farm | 38 |
| 10 | US20100280872A1 | Methods and systems for monitoring and scheduling operations and maintenance activities | 35 |
Citation counts favour older filings inside a searched corpus — read them as a signal of influence on later art, not as a ranking of current technical importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Read together, the trend, the concentration figures and the IPC spread point to a field that is still accepting new claims, provided they sit outside the densest control-and-monitoring core.
Activity is still building, not cooling
The rise from 2 filings in 2021 to 11 in 2024 is the steepest stretch in the dataset. Because 2025–2026 records are still publishing, the true current rate is higher than the raw counts show.
Leaders hold a majority, not a lock
The top 5 assignees account for 52.4% of all 103 records and the top 10 for 72.8%. That leaves roughly a quarter of the corpus spread across a long tail of single- or few-filing entrants.
Core turbine claims dominate the corpus
F03D wind-motor filings touch more than two-thirds of records. Grid and control classes (H02J, G05B) sit well behind, and AI-model claims under G06N reach just 9.7% — a smaller but growing footprint.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to wind-farm operations & maintenance patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gate sits
The leader holds 16 records against a fifth-place count of 6 and a tenth-place count of 3 — a steep drop after the top few names, then a long, thinly spread tail.
A single leader well ahead of the field
The top-ranked assignee holds 16 of the 103 records in scope, more than double the fifth-place count of 6. That gap is the clearest concentration signal in the dataset.
A tight middle tier
From roughly fifth to tenth place, counts fall from 6 to 3, forming a middle tier of assignees with meaningful but modest portfolios rather than dominant positions.
New entrants are still appearing
Several established assignees show zero filings in the latest year, while at least one newer name registers activity — a sign that recent filing is not confined to the incumbents.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| WINDEVEREST CORP | 1 | — |
| General Electric Co | 0 | — |
| General Electric Renovables Espana SL | 0 | — |
| XEMC Darwind | 0 | — |
| RENOM ENERGY SERVICES LLP | 0 | — |
| Intertrust Technologies Corp | 0 | — |
| INVENTUS HOLDINGS LLC | 0 | — |
| COAWAY | 0 | — |
Where to take this next
The composition and concentration figures point to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, portfolio building, or partnership scouting.
Check freedom-to-operate against the dense core
F03D wind-motor claims cover 68.9% of records, so any turbine-control filing should be checked against the leaders' portfolios before drafting.
Run a freedom-to-operate check in EurekaExplore the under-claimed control branches
Wake-aware control, cross-turbine coordination and AI-driven pitch scheduling show thinner coverage relative to the core — a starting point for new claim drafting.
Explore white space in EurekaTrack the long tail for partnership signals
With 66 companies in the ranking and a steep drop after the top few, several single-filing entrants may be worth monitoring for licensing or acquisition interest.
Monitor assignees in EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
One assignee leads the ranked field with 16 of the 103 records in scope, well ahead of the fifth-place holder at 6. The top 5 assignees together hold 52.4% of all records, and the top 10 hold 72.8%, so while there is a clear leader, more than a quarter of the corpus is spread across a long tail of smaller filers. The full ranking covers 66 companies, so it is not a top-50 or top-100 list — it is the complete set the data returns for this search.
Filings grew sharply between 2021 and 2024, rising from 2 to 11 records a year, a 450% increase over that span, with 2024 standing as the peak year so far. The 2025 and 2026 figures look lower, but that is an artefact of publication lag — patent applications typically publish about 18 months after filing, so recent years are always undercounted at the time of viewing. Nothing in the complete years supports a slowdown; the trend through 2024 is upward.
Core turbine hardware and control, classified under F03D (wind motors), appears in 68.9% of the 103 records, making it by far the densest area. Grid and power-supply systems (H02J) and control/regulating systems (G05B) follow at 16.5% and 14.6% respectively. Software-adjacent classes — business/admin data processing (G06Q), digital transmission (H04L), AI models (G06N) and general digital data processing (G06F) — each appear in roughly 9-13% of records, reflecting growing use of data and AI methods layered on top of turbine control claims.
Relative to the dense F03D core, branches such as wake-aware yaw scheduling, cross-turbine torque coordination, AI-driven predictive blade-pitch control, and farm-level maintenance data pipelines show thinner claim coverage in this corpus. These sit adjacent to well-covered turbine control claims but combine them with data-driven or multi-turbine coordination elements that are less saturated. A first claim in these areas would typically need to tie a specific sensor input or model output to a concrete actuator command to clear the existing art.
US20250101946A1, filed by National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC and published 2025-03-27, covers active wake control across a wind farm — using blade pitch, rotor speed, or nacelle yaw as flow actuators to reduce wake-driven efficiency losses between turbines. It matters because wake management sits at the intersection of the corpus's two biggest themes: core F03D turbine control and farm-level operational optimisation. Anyone drafting claims in multi-turbine coordination or wake-aware control should review this filing's scope closely before finalising claim language.
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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.