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Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/wind-turbine-blade-design-and-manufacturing-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-07-31 · downloaded from the live page
Patent Landscape · Wind EnergyWind Turbine Blade Design and Manufacturing Patents
- Filings have declined since the 2018 peak of 529, dropping to a partial 12 in the most recent year — a maturing claim space, not a growing one.
- Composite shaping and layered-product IPC classes sit well behind F03D, suggesting blade manufacturing process claims are thinner than aerodynamic and structural ones.
- Every tracked assignee's momentum is flat or negative year-on-year, including drops of -69% to -100%, with no filer currently accelerating.
6,208
Published Records
50%
Top-5 Share of All Records
-70%
Filing Growth 2021→2024
US
Leading Jurisdiction
Filing growth compares 2021 (452 records) with 2024 (136) — 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 6,208 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
Published byPatsnap Research··8 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Overview
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks patent families filed against wind turbine blade, rotor blade and blade design terminology, narrowed to filings that also claim on aerodynamic profile, blade length, composite layup, leading edge erosion or fatigue load — and classified under wind motor (F03D), plastics shaping (B29C) and related IPC codes. Coverage runs from 2015 through a July 2026 cut-off, capturing both the last full filing cycle and the most recent, still-incomplete one. Because publication typically lags filing by around eighteen months, the final one or two years in any trend line will always look thinner than they eventually turn out to be.
The scope is deliberately narrow: it is not all wind-energy patenting, but the subset where blade geometry, blade materials and blade manufacturing processes are explicit claim elements. That narrowing is what makes the assignee ranking and the IPC composition below meaningful for a blade-specific filing decision, rather than a general wind-industry one.
Filing volume by year, 2017–2026
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on Wind Turbine Blade Design and Manufacturing covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
The data
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same corpus: how filing volume has moved year over year, and how the 6,208 families split across the IPC subclasses that define blade design versus blade manufacturing.
A peak in 2018, then a steady decline
Filings ran at 395 in 2017, peaked at 529 in 2018, and had fallen to a midpoint of 290 by 2022. The partial count of 12 for the most recent year is an undercount by construction, but even allowing for the publication lag, the multi-year direction is down rather than flat.
F03D dominates; composite processing is a distinct second tier
F03D (wind motors) covers 5,846 of the records, making it the anchor classification for nearly every family in scope. B29C (plastics shaping) and B29D (specific plastic articles) sit well behind at 1,327 and 696 respectively, with B32B (layered products) trailing at 106 — evidence that blade manufacturing process claims are filed far less densely than blade structure and aerodynamics claims.
Shares are the percentage of the 6,208 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Wind Turbine Blade Design and Manufacturing covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
Go deeper on Wind Turbine Blade Design and Manufacturing with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about wind turbine blade design and manufacturing and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
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The records other filings build on
Representative recent filing
Method of manufacturing a shell of a wind turbine blade having improved leading edge erosion protection
SIEMENS GAMESA RENEWABLE ENERGY A/S
Provided is a method for manufacturing a shell of a wind turbine blade having improved leading edge erosion protection, wherein the method includes the steps of: (a) providing a preform of the shell, (b) providing a protective cover for protection of the shell, (c) arranging the protective cover at a portion of a leading edge of the shell, so that an erosion protected shell is obtained, and (d) casting the erosion protected shell, so that the shell of the wind turbine blade having the improved erosion protection is obtained. Also provided is a method of manufacturing the wind turbine blade and to a shell, a wind turbine blade and a wind turbine.Filed by Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy A/S, published 2021-05-20. Ties leading-edge erosion protection directly to the shell casting step rather than treating it as a post-manufacture coating.
Most-cited records in this corpus
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US4976587A | Composite wind turbine rotor blade and method for making same | 353 |
| 2 | EP1314885A1 | Flexible serrated trailing edge for wind turbine rotor blade | 181 |
| 3 | US6612810B1 | Wind turbine blade with a system for deicing and lightning protection | 178 |
| 4 | WO2007140771A1 | A wind turbine blade and a pitch controlled wind turbine | 169 |
| 5 | WO2006002621A1 | Wind turbine blades made of two separate sections, and method of assembly | 155 |
| 6 | US6145787A | Device and method for heating and deicing wind energy turbine blades | 150 |
| 7 | US7922454B1 | Joint design for rotor blade segments of a wind turbine | 143 |
| 8 | US20070036659A1 | Method of manufacturing a wind turbine blade, wind turbine blade, front cover and use of a front cover | 143 |
| 9 | WO2003008800A1 | Wind turbine blade | 134 |
| 10 | US7059833B2 | Method for improvement of the efficiency of a wind turbine rotor | 128 |
Citation counts favour older filings that have had more time to accumulate citations inside this searched corpus — read them as a signal of influence on subsequent filers, not as a ranking of current commercial importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Citation counts and representative records. Derived from a Patsnap search on Wind Turbine Blade Design and Manufacturing covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Read together, the trend line, the IPC split and the receiving-office spread point to a claim space that is well-populated at the structural level and thinner at the process level.
Filing trend
529 → 12
peak year to latest partial year
Volume has been declining since 2018
The 2018 peak of 529 filings has not been matched since; the 2022 midpoint of 290 already shows the slide underway well before the most recent, publication-lag-affected years.
Treat the last one to two years as understated by construction.
Technology split
5,846 vs 1,327
F03D records vs B29C records
Structural claims outnumber process claims by a wide margin
Wind-motor classification F03D anchors nearly every family in scope, while plastics-shaping class B29C — the composite layup and moulding side of blade manufacturing — covers under a quarter as many records.
A gap this size is a filing opportunity, not a quality signal.
Jurisdiction spread
1,622 vs 469
US filings vs Denmark filings
Filing is concentrated in the US and Europe, with Denmark disproportionately represented
The United States and the EPO each carry over 1,500 filings, but Denmark's 469 is notable given its population and industrial base — a marker of the country's specific blade-manufacturing cluster.
India's 487 filings suggest a growing manufacturing or licensing footprint there too.
Assignee momentum
-69% to -100%
YoY change across tracked assignees
No tracked assignee is currently accelerating
Every major filer in the recent-momentum data is flat or down year-on-year, several to zero. That is consistent with a maturing claim space where incumbents have already staked out core structural and erosion-protection ground.
A slowdown among incumbents is also when a well-targeted new claim faces the least crowding.
Eureka AI Agent
Looking for what nobody has claimed yet?
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to wind turbine blade design and manufacturing, with the prior art for and against each one.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on Wind Turbine Blade Design and Manufacturing covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Players
Who holds the ground, and where it is thinning
The assignee ranking is dominated by a small group of blade and turbine specialists, with co-filing pairs pointing to internal subsidiary structures and named-inventor collaborations rather than cross-company alliances.
Legacy blade specialist
40
strongest co-assignee pair filing count
LM Wind Power A/S and its US technology affiliate file as a pair
The strongest co-assignee link in the dataset — 40 shared filings between LM Wind Power International Technology II ApS and LM WIND POWER US TECH APS — reflects a single blade-manufacturing group filing across two legal entities rather than two independent companies collaborating.
A second LM-linked pairing (36 filings) sits close behind.
Turbine OEM
1 in latest year
recent-year filing count
Vestas Wind Systems A/S has slowed sharply but not stopped
An -88% year-on-year drop still left one filing in the latest year, distinguishing it from assignees that have gone to zero — a sign the OEM is maintaining a minimal but active filing posture rather than exiting.
Its named-inventor co-filing pattern (10 filings with HANCOCK MARK) suggests a specific R&D team driving output.
Zero-momentum incumbents
0 in latest year
across three major assignees
General Electric Company, LM WP Patent Holding A/S and Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, S.A. show no recent filings
Three of the largest historical filers register zero in the most recent year, two of them down -100% YoY. That does not mean these companies have stopped innovating on blades; it more likely reflects filing cycles and publication lag catching up with real slowdown.
Their historical portfolios remain the prior art a new entrant must clear.
Recent-year filing momentum by assignee
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| LM Wind Power A/S | 5 | -69% |
| Vestas Wind Systems A/S | 1 | -88% |
| General Electric Company | 0 | — |
| LM WP Patent Holding A/S | 0 | — |
| Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, S.A. | 0 | -100% |
| Wobben Properties GmbH | 0 | -100% |
| LM Wind Power International Technology II ApS | 0 | — |
| Siemens AG | 0 | — |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on Wind Turbine Blade Design and Manufacturing covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
What's next
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, a new filing strategy, or monitoring a competitor's slowdown.
Map the white space branches to your own R&D roadmap
Cross-reference the under-claimed sub-areas above against active R&D projects to see which have the clearest run to a defensible claim.
Explore white space in EurekaRun a freedom-to-operate check against the most-cited records
The five most-cited patents anchor a large share of downstream citations; any new blade manufacturing process should be checked against them specifically.
Run an FTO search in EurekaTrack incumbent momentum before it reverses
Every major assignee tracked here is flat or declining; a renewed uptick from any one of them is an early signal worth monitoring.
Set up assignee monitoring in EurekaSource: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Wind Turbine Blade Design and Manufacturing covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
FAQ
Common questions on wind turbine blade patents
Filing in this space is concentrated among a small group of blade specialists and turbine OEMs, including LM-affiliated entities, Vestas-linked filers, and Siemens Gamesa, alongside GE-related assignees. LM Wind Power A/S and its US technology affiliate show the strongest co-filing relationship in the dataset, reflecting a single manufacturing group operating across multiple legal entities. That said, every one of these major assignees shows flat or declining year-on-year filing momentum, so the ranking reflects historical accumulation more than current output.
Filings peaked at 529 in 2018 and have declined since, with the 2022 midpoint already down to 290. The most recent year shows only 12 filings, though that figure is understated because publication typically lags filing by around eighteen months. Even accounting for that lag, the multi-year trend points to a maturing rather than expanding claim space.
Blade design patents tend to fall under the F03D wind-motor classification and cover aerodynamic profile, blade length and structural geometry — this is by far the largest category, with 5,846 of 6,208 records touching F03D. Blade manufacturing patents cluster under B29C (plastics shaping) and related composite classes like B29D and B32B, and are filed at a fraction of the volume. That gap suggests manufacturing process claims, such as composite layup and shell casting techniques, are less crowded than structural claims.
The clearest gaps sit in composite manufacturing sub-areas rather than blade structure: leading-edge erosion self-healing coatings, modular blade root joint fastening, recyclable composite layup resins, in-situ fatigue load sensing, and segmented transport joints all show thinner filing density than the core aerodynamic and structural claims. These are areas where the underlying IPC classes (B29C, B32B, B29K) carry a small fraction of the volume that F03D does. A first claim in one of these branches would need to tie a specific material or process step to a measurable blade-performance outcome to stand apart from the existing structural art.
US20210148328A1, assigned to Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy A/S and published in May 2021, claims a method of manufacturing a wind turbine blade shell in which a protective cover is arranged at the leading edge before the shell is cast, so erosion protection is built into the casting step rather than applied afterward. That specific sequence — preform, protective cover placement, then casting — is what the claims lock down, not leading-edge erosion protection generally. Alternative approaches that apply erosion protection post-cure, use different cover materials, or address erosion through blade coating chemistry rather than shell casting sit outside this specific claim scope.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Wind Turbine Blade Design and Manufacturing covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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Go past this page: query the whole wind turbine blade design and manufacturing corpus yourself, in your own scope.
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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.