Alternative Energy/IP Profile of Biggest for-profit companies in AE
Answer the questions:
- What are the 10 biggest for-profit companies in this field?
- How is the market distributed?
- Where are they located? Are there any incentives for specific locations?
- Correlate them with their main outputs (Data. Narratives. Tools)
- Understand and identify cases where these companies are “experimenting” or “adopting” commons-based approaches
- Identify these cases and treat them as entities that will also be placed in our mapping*device (the quadrants)
- Identify what companies are the “Microsofts” of the field and what companies are the “IBMs” of the field
Background for Questions:
Alternative Energy Market Information
Title: Clean Tech LLC (San Francisco, CA)
- Home page: http://cleantech.com
- Clean Tech Stock Index (76 companies, a good list of industry leaders): http://cleantech.com/index/index.cfm
- Google Finance: http://www.google.com/finance?q=++CLEANTECH+INDEX
Wind
Market Information
- Wind Power in the United States - 10 Companies to Watch
- America Wind Energy Association
- Annual US Wind Power Rankings Track Industry’s Rapid Growth (2007)
- http://www.awea.org/newsroom/releases/Annual_US_Wind_Power_Rankings_041107.html
- Annual US Wind Power Rankings Track Industry’s Rapid Growth (2007)
- Wind Farm Development
Solar
Market Information
- Solar Energy's Sunny Side: The credit crunch is putting the breaks on the plans of many solar companies. The survivors will be those with disruptive technologies.
Leading Companies
SunPower
- Home page: http://www.sunpowercorp.com/
- Google Finance: http://www.google.com/finance?client=ob&q=NASDAQ:SPWRB
- 10K annual report: http://investors.sunpowercorp.com/secfiling.cfm?filingID=867773-09-11
designs, manufactures and markets high-performance solar electric power technologies
15 years of research and development
solar cells and solar panels are manufactured using proprietary processes
IP Strategy:
«We rely on a combination of patent, copyright, trade secret, trademark and contractual protections to establish and protect our proprietary rights.» Form 10-K Annual Report 2008
«Although we apply for patents to protect our technology, our revenue is not dependent on any particular patent we own.»
First Solar (Tempe, AZ)
- Home page: http://www.firstsolar.com/
- Google Finance: http://www.google.com/finance?q=FSLR
- 10K Annual Report: http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1274494/000095013409003635/p14089e10vk.htm
- News: First Solar's Cautious Tone Weighs Down Solar Sector http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20090225-714525.html?mod=rss_Hot_Stocks
«We design and manufacture solar modules using a proprietary thin film semiconductor technology» 2009 10K
proprietary production process
«We rely primarily on a combination of patents, trademarks and trade secrets, as well as employee and third party confidentiality agreements, to safeguard our intellectual property.» 2009 10K
- US Patents
- 23 patents
- 37 patent applications pending
- Foreign Patents
- 17 patents
- 70 patent applications pending
SunTech
- Home Page: http://www.suntech-power.com/
- Google Finance: http://www.google.com/finance?client=ob&q=NYSE:STP
- Form 20F http://library.corporate-ir.net/library/19/192/192654/items/287738/SuntechPowerHol20F.pdf
Evergreen Solar
- Home page: http://www.evergreensolar.com/
- Google Finance: http://www.google.com/finance?client=ob&q=NASDAQ:ESLR
- 10K annual report: http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/947397/000095013508001256/b68105ese10vk.htm
âDevelop, manufacture and market solar panels utilizing our proprietary String Ribbontm technology»
- Patents
- 22 U.S. patents,
- 7 Indian
- 6 European
- Pending Patents
- 20 U.S. patent applications
- 26 foreign patent applications
Applied Materials
- Google Finance: http://www.google.com/finance?q=AMAT
- SunFab: http://www.appliedmaterials.com/products/solar_sunfab_3.html
- Solar Strategy: http://www.appliedmaterials.com/news/solar_strategy.html