Wind Turbine Generator Patents: Leaders, Trends & White Space 2026
- Filing peaked in 2021 at 17 families, then declined toward the 2022 midpoint of 3 — a maturing claim base rather than a growing one.
- F03D dominates at 115 of 142 records, but H02P control claims (51) and H02J grid-interface claims (33) show the fight has moved to control and grid logic, not just the turbine itself.
- The most-cited record is a 2007 DFIG ride-through control patent, still the reference point examiners and drafters measure new low voltage ride-through claims against.
What this patent set covers
This landscape tracks 142 patent families published between 2015 and mid-2026 that combine wind turbine generator or converter architecture with claims touching low voltage ride-through, converter reliability, generator cooling, harmonic compliance or power quality. The search deliberately pairs a hardware term — wind turbine generator, wind power converter, doubly fed induction generator — with a grid-behaviour or reliability term, so the set skews toward filings that treat the generator and its converter as a single controlled system rather than as separate mechanical and electrical inventions.
Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 counts in the trend chart understate actual filing activity; treat the last one to two years as a floor, not a ceiling.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 142 families: when the claims were filed, and which IPC subclasses carry them.
A 2021 peak followed by decline
Filings rose from 3 in 2017 to a peak of 17 in 2021, then fell back toward 3 by the 2022 midpoint — a pattern consistent with a technology area where the core control architectures were staked out early and later filings narrow rather than expand the claim space. The most recent years are partial and understated by publication lag.
F03D and H02K carry the bulk of the claims
F03D (wind motors) appears in 115 of 142 records and H02K (electric motors and generators) in 56, confirming the set is turbine- and generator-centred. H02P (motor control, 51) and H02J (grid systems, 33) are large enough to show that ride-through and power-quality claims are increasingly written as control and grid-interface logic rather than pure electromechanical design; H02M (power conversion, 18) and the smaller F16C, H02H and B01D counts mark narrower, secondary claim territory.
Shares are the percentage of the 142 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Wind Turbine Generator and Converter with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about wind turbine generator and converter and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited prior art in this space
Control system for doubly fed induction generator (US20070052244A1)
A controller adjusts signals to the rotor-side and line-side converters of a doubly fed induction generator to manage rotor current when a grid voltage transient occurs, allowing the DFIG to ride through the disturbance. The controller can also disable the rotor-side converter transistors or activate a crowbar to protect the DC link when transients are severe, permitting continued operation through the fault.Filed by Schneider Electric Solar Inverters USA (formerly American Superconductor / Xantrex lineage) in 2007; it remains the second most-cited record in this dataset.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20070216164A1 | Variable speed wind turbine having an exciter machine and a power converter not connected to the grid | 137 |
| 2 | US20070052244A1 | Control system for doubly fed induction generator | 123 |
| 3 | US7432686B2 | Wind turbine generator apparatus with utility fault ride-through capability | 89 |
| 4 | US20090322082A1 | Wind turbine with parallel converters utilizing a plurality of isolated transformer windings | 69 |
| 5 | US20090278351A1 | High voltage direct current link transmission system for variable speed wind turbine | 67 |
| 6 | US7939959B2 | Wind turbine with parallel converters utilizing a plurality of isolated transformer windings | 62 |
| 7 | US20110272949A1 | Wind turbine generator | 61 |
| 8 | US7622815B2 | Low voltage ride through system for a variable speed wind turbine having an exciter machine and a power conve… | 57 |
| 9 | US20040264082A1 | Method and apparatus for capture of grid characteristics corresponding to fluctuation events | 56 |
| 10 | US20080157529A1 | Low voltage ride through system for a variable speed wind turbine having an exciter machine and a power conve… | 54 |
Citation counts accumulate over time, so older filings are structurally favoured; treat this table as a map of influence, not of current commercial weight.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three patterns worth acting on before drafting or freedom-to-operate work in this space.
The rush has passed
Filing activity peaked in 2021 and had fallen back to 2017 levels by the 2022 midpoint. New entrants are more likely to be narrowing existing architectures — specific cooling loops, specific harmonic filters — than proposing new topologies.
Control claims are the growth edge
F03D anchors the set, but H02P control-of-motor claims (51) and H02J grid-system claims (33) are large enough that control-logic and grid-interface claims are where new filing activity concentrates, not raw generator mechanics.
Two 2007-era patents still anchor the field
The two highest-cited records — a variable-speed exciter/converter architecture and a DFIG ride-through control system — both date to 2007 and sit well ahead of the next tier on citation count, meaning any ride-through claim still gets read against them first.
Filing is concentrated in three offices
The United States and EPO together account for the large majority of receiving-office activity, with India as a distinct third venue — useful signal for where opposition and freedom-to-operate risk actually concentrates.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to wind turbine generator and converter, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds ground, and where the claims are open
Recent-year momentum data shows the named assignees below all recorded 0 filings in the latest year — a sign the leading players are holding their existing portfolios rather than actively expanding them right now.
Incumbents are in hold mode
General Electric, Vestas, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Siemens, Ingeteam and Siemens Gamesa all show zero filings in the most recent tracked year. That is consistent with publication lag rather than withdrawal, but it also means their portfolios as filed are the ones a new entrant must design around today.
Collaboration is limited and mostly inventor-linked
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear across 142 families, and the strongest pairs link a single corporate assignee to a named inventor rather than two companies jointly filing. This is a field of largely independent corporate portfolios, not joint ventures.
Filing strategy is multi-jurisdictional but US/EU-led
With meaningful counts in the US, EPO, India, Canada, WIPO/PCT and China, assignees in this space are filing broadly, but the US and EPO combined still carry more volume than the other four venues together.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| General Electric Company | 0 | — |
| Vestas Wind Systems A/S | 0 | — |
| Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Siemens AG | 0 | — |
| INGETEAM SA (ES) | 0 | — |
| Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy | 0 | — |
| Ingeteam Power Technology, S.A. | 0 | — |
| Gamesa Innovation & Technology | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The trend and composition data point to a field where the core architecture is settled and the remaining work is in control logic, cooling and secondary protection circuits.
Map claims against your own architecture
Run your specific converter topology or ride-through control scheme against the highest-cited records to see how close your claims sit to the 2007-era anchor patents before you draft.
Explore in Patsnap EurekaWatch the control and grid-interface subclasses
H02P and H02J counts suggest future contested ground is in control logic and grid interface, not turbine mechanics — worth a dedicated watch as new families publish.
Set up a monitoring view in Patsnap EurekaCommon questions about wind turbine generator and converter patents
The dataset's recent-year momentum table shows established turbine and power-electronics manufacturers such as General Electric, Vestas, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Siemens, Ingeteam and Siemens Gamesa as the named legacy assignees, though all show zero filings in the most recent tracked year. This reflects the mix of publication lag and a maturing filing curve rather than the companies exiting the space. For a current freedom-to-operate check, treat these assignees' existing families as the baseline to search against rather than assuming their filing pace today matches their historical volume.
Low voltage ride-through refers to a wind turbine's ability to stay connected to the grid and continue controlled operation through a voltage dip, rather than tripping offline. In this dataset it shows up as control-system claims covering rotor-side and line-side converter behaviour, crowbar protection circuits, and DC-link voltage management during grid transients. It matters because grid codes in most major markets require ride-through capability, so patents in this area sit directly on a compliance requirement rather than an optional feature.
Based on this dataset, no: filings rose from 3 in 2017 to a peak of 17 in 2021, then declined to 3 by the 2022 midpoint. That pattern points to a technology area where the core architectures were established earlier in the period and subsequent filings refine rather than expand the claim space. The most recent one to two years are understated because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the true 2025–2026 filing rate is likely higher than shown.
F03D (wind motors) covers the large majority of this dataset at 115 of 142 records, making it the anchor classification for turbine-level claims. H02K (electric motors and generators, 56 records) and H02P (control of motors and generators, 51 records) matter for generator and control-logic claims specifically, while H02J (power supply and grid systems, 33 records) and H02M (power conversion, 18 records) are essential for converter and grid-interface searches. A thorough freedom-to-operate search in this space should combine all five rather than relying on F03D alone.
A doubly fed induction generator, or DFIG, is a wind turbine generator design where both the stator and rotor windings connect to the grid, with a partially-rated converter controlling the rotor circuit to manage variable-speed operation. It dominates this patent set because DFIG architectures require active converter control to manage grid disturbances, which is exactly the intersection of hardware and ride-through control logic this search targets. The two most-cited records in the dataset are both DFIG or DFIG-adjacent ride-through control patents from 2007, underlining how central this architecture is to the field's foundational claims.
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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.