Alternative Energy/IP Profile of Biggest for-profit companies in AE

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Answer the questions:

What are the 10 biggest for-profit companies in this field?

See the 3 charts inserted below which split the leading companies between the fields of wind, solar, and tidal/wave.

Results from other studies based on top patent owners:

  1. The top patent owners since 2002 are shown below, ranked relative to total number of patents, and also annotated to show the 2008 and 2009 contributions
  2. WIPO study 2009, p 74-91
  3. Chatham House Report 2009, p22

How is the market distributed?

Alternative Energy Market Information

US Overview from: Clean Tech LLC (San Francisco, CA)

Wind

The top ten companies account for 85% of the global turbine market [1] The market leader is Vestas (Denmark) with 19.8% of the market but GE Energy (USA) is growing quickly and has nearly caught up with 18.6% of the market. [2] The biggest change to this distribution is likely to come from Chinese manufacturers who are expanding and bringing down the cost of manufacturing turbines. [3] Emerging market players like China and India are changing the make-up of turbine manufacturing since, as of 2005, eight of the top ten wind turbine manufacturers were in Europe and they represented 72% of the global market, or a value of US$23.3 billion. (Gallagher 2009, 93)

  • Wind Power in the United States
    • In 2007 US wind power generating capacity grew by 45% with the installation of 5244MW of new wind turbines, which brought the total capacity in the US to 16,819 MW. This growth equaled one third of the new electricity generating capacity in the country that year, and established the US as one of the fastest growing wind markets in the world. The following link accesses a list of some of the newer US wind companies that are having success in the market. [4]
    • As of 2008 the US is now the fastest growing and largest wind market in the world following 2007 with another 8,351MW of new wind capacity to bring the country's total to 25,170MW edging out Germany (23,903MW) for first place. (WWEA 2008, 5)
    • The US wind market in 2008 was valued at $151.3 billion. (Bosik 2009, 1)
  1. Vestas - Denmark 28%
  2. Gamesa - Spain 16%
  3. GE Wind - US 15%
  4. Enercon - Germany 15%
  5. Suzlon - India 8%
  6. Siemens - Denmark/Germany 7%
  7. Nordex - Germany 3%
  8. RePower - Germany 3%
  9. Acciona - Spain 3%
  10. Goldwind - China 3%
Solar
  • While a few US Solar companies are starting to compete on a global level, in 2007 none of the top five solar PV companies were based in the US. The global PV market is worth $12.9 billion. (Gallagher 2009, 94)
  • Annual global Solar PV growth has been in the 40% - 60% range since 2000 and resulted in 3,800MW of PV capacity by 2007. (Cappello 2008, 6)
  • Global Solar PV production almost doubled in 2008 rising to 7.3 GW an 80% increase over 2007. [5]
  • China is now the leading producer of solar cells, with an annual production of about 2.4 GW. They have ousted Japan, the former leading producer.
  • China could secure about 32% of world-wide production capacity by 2012 if this trend continues. [6]
  • Behind China's production prowess are Europe with 1.9 GW, Japan with 1.2 GW and Taiwan with 0.8 GW.[7]
  • European PV production has grown on average by 50% per annum since 1999 and its market share has increased to 26% in 2008. [8]
  • The US is the leader in thin film PV technology, which represents only 7% of global production (170MW). (Capello 2008, 6)
  • [9] In 2009 the global economic crisis has impacted solar companies most due to the high cost of the technology, and therefore the high cost of the projects. The credit crunch has slowed project developers acquisitions of loan money and caused a precipitous drop in tax equity investing. Tax Equity Investing - The government tax credits offered for solar developments can be sold to large banks which apply them to their own tax liability. As a result the bank becomes a partial funder of a solar energy development. Given the drastically shrinking bank profits, they are aren't buying the tax credits from solar developers at the same level they were prior to the economic downturn. This has resulted in a large shortfall in capital investment for new solar developments.
  • The credit crunch is putting the brakes on the plans of many solar companies. The survivors will be those with disruptive technologies. [10]
  • 2006 Global PV Production Share by Company (Capello 2008, 12)
  1. Sharp Electronics - Japan (17.5%)
  2. Q-Cells - Germany (10%)
  3. Kyocera - Japan (7%)
  4. Suntech Power Holdings Ltd. - China (6.5%)
  5. Sanyo - Japan (6%)
  6. Mitsubishi - Japan (4.5%)
  7. Motech Industries Inc. - Taiwan (4%)
  8. Shell - UK (3.5%)
  9. SunPower - USA (2.5%)
  10. First Solar - USA (2.5%)
Tidal/Wave
  • The overall market for ocean energies, which includes tidal/wave and ocean thermal (ocean thermal is not part of our research focus) started to grow in 2004, and achieved $76 million dollars of global investment in 2007, only to experience a drop of $26 million in 2008. (Perez 2009, 7)
  • The US has generally lagged behind the UK, Japan and New Zealand in developing commercially viable power generation plants. (Perez 2009, 6)
  • Since 1998 there have been approximately 36 global wave energy projects of which only 7 are in full deployment. These 7 are located in Scotland, Portugal, Australia, Ireland and Norway.
  • The world's first commercial wave energy plant was opened in Portugal in 2008.
  • Portugals Feed-in Tariff is offered for ocean energy projects and therefore pays the cost of grid interconnection, which can be one of the main financial barriers to development of these projects. It has been noted by market researchers that government subsidies and private investment will be crucial if commercial ocean energy power plants are to be built in the US. (Perez 2009, 9-10)
  • Currently there are no tidal or wave grid-connected, full-scale commercial power plants in the US, and due to market concerns and regulatory agencies competing over jurisdiction of the US Outer Continental Shelf, it is expected that a working plant will not be feasible until 2020. Meanwhile in April 2009, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) signed an agreement to remove the regulatory barriers for hydrokinectic (ocean energy) development on the US Outer Continental Shelf, which opens the door for new developments. (Perez 2009, 10)
  • In 2007 and 2008 FERC started to expedite permits for ocean energy projects and 2007 saw a marked increase in the number of permits for tidal energy projects.
  • A list of some of the various ocean energy companies working on their technology around the world:
    • Aquamarine Power
    • Aquantis, Inc.
    • Aquaphinle sarl (Hydro-Gen)
    • Atlantis Resources Corporation
    • Atlantis Resources Corporation
    • BioPower Systems Pty Ltd
    • Bourne Energy
    • Clean Current Power Systems
    • Free Flow 69
    • Free Flow Power Corporation
    • Hammerfest Strom UK
    • Hydro Green Energy
    • HydroCoil Power, Inc.
    • Hydrohelix Energies Kinetic Energy Systems
    • OpenHydro
    • RED HAWK Tidal Turbine
    • Robert Gordon University
    • Rugged Renewables (EMAT, Inc.)
    • Scotrenewables
    • SMD Hydrovision
    • Statkraft
    • Swantubines Ltd.
    • Tidal Defense and Energy Systems (TIDES)
    • Tidal Electric
    • Tidal Energy Ltd.
    • Tidal Generation Ltd.
    • Tidal Hydraulic Generators Ltd.
    • Tidal Stream
    • Tocardo Tidal Energy Ltd.

Where are they located? Are there any incentives for specific locations?

  • Innovation and Manifacturing

The majority of the companies are located in the Northeast, Mid Atlantic states or in California. This pattern most likely takes advantage of the leading universities that are located in these areas.

  • Development, Testing, and Power Production

Location of resources effects the development of alternative energy power production. The U.S. Department of energy provides wind and solar resource maps [[12]]Transmission infrastructure and capacity is another key location factor for development.

Company Profiles

Wind
Vestas (Denmark)

Profile

  • Vestas is a leader in the wind industry. Vestas is an international public company with 12,309 employees and $6,281.10 million in sales in 2007 (Business and Company Resource Center Profile Information Bibliography_for_Item_7_in_AE). The company is responsible for the installation of over 33,500 wind turbines in 63 countries [13] Vestas' United States presence is largely based in Colorado which includes technology and production engineering offices, a division of the Vestas Business Academy for the training and development of employees, a blade factory, and the worlds largest tower factory.[14]

History:

  • Vestas is a company with a long history that shows a constant ability to redefine itself as a company. Vestas began as a blacksmith shop in 1898, it shifted its focus to industrial production in 1928, manufacturing appliances in 1945, manufacturing truck intercoolers in the 1950's, and production of hydraulic cranes in the 1960's. (Business and Company Resource Center Profile Information Bibliography_for_Item_7_in_AE).
  • By the 1980's Vestas production of wind turbines was in full swing. Vestas manufactured "Darrieus turbines" and began to vertically integrate their turbine production as well as push into several international markets. In 1985, Vestas had a break through innovation in turbine pitch regulation.
  • In 1998, the company went public and most recently has focused its research and innovation efforts on offshore wind.

Current Research:

  • Vestas has agreed to work with Boeing in the creation of environmentally progressive technologies.[15] The companies share expertise in aerodynamics and materials science and hope to jointly innovate in these areas.[16] The collaboration will take place both in Europe and the USA. Probably one of the most interesting signals sent by this announcement is that the wind industry has matured sufficiently to pair with established industry leaders in related fields.
Clipper Windpower (Carpinteria, CA)

Profile:

  • Clipper Wind Power is a leader in the wind industry which participates in turbine installation, operation, and maintenance [17] The company is split into:Clipper Turbine Works, Inc. (manufacturing of wind turbines), Clipper Fleet Services, Inc. (services related to wind turbines), and Clipper Windpower Development Company, Inc. (managing developed wind projects). Clipper Wind has 740 employees. The company largely focuses their production efforts on their Liberty 2.5 MW turbine. The turbine is both reliable and a good performer.

Current Research:

  • Clipper Windpower is working to develop a larger 7.5 MW turbine. [18] The North East Centre of Excellence for New and Renewable Energy (NaREC), will work with Clipper Windpower to provide engineering, testing and development services for their new 7.5 MW turbine. [19] This new model will allow the company to take advantage of the push towards offshore wind. [20]
GE Energy (Atlanta, GA)

Profile:

  • GE Energy is a vertically organized company that participates in wind power plant design, engineering and site selection, and wind farm operation and maintenance services. The company has global reach with six wind manufacturing and assembly facilities in Germany, Spain, China, Canada and the United States" [21] The core of its turbine offers include 1.5 MW and 2.5MW designs [22]

History:

  • "GE bought into the wind generation business in 2002 when it acquired Enron's wind turbine manufacturing assets for less than $300 million. Since 2004, GE Wind's production has grown 600 percent and sales have quadrupled. It now claims 45 percent of the U.S. market." (Blankinship, S.) GE pushed larger turbine development for offshore installations which were only in development stages at the time of the Enron Sale.

(Blankinship, S., Power Engineering, 2008, Windfall profits posted as PTC sunset nears, v112 i4 p20)

Suzlon (Pune, India)

Profile:

  • Suzlon is the 5th largest wind turbine manufacturer in the world with 11.70 million in sales. (Business and Company Resource Center Company Profile) [23] Suzlon is an international private company that participates in design, manufacturing, operation and maintenance services [24] [25] It operates in twenty one countries and has research facilities in four. [26] [27]

History:

  • Suzlon began in 1995. The company began by licensing key technology from other wind power companies and by hiring the engineers of a wind company when it failed. Eventually, using the new engineers, Suzlon was able to start their own R&D. [(Kumar 2009, 152)] [28]
Gamesa (Navarra, Spain)

Profile:

  • Gamesa is an international public company that had $5,186.40 million in annual sales (Business and Company Resource Center Company Profile) Gamesa participates in the construction and sale of solar and wind farms as well as design and manufacture of wind turbines. [29] Gamesa’s biggest customer is the Spanish power company Iberdrola. [30] Iberdrola is also the largest shareholder of Gamesa.

Developers

  • Blue Water Wind (Hoboken, NJ) [31]
  • National Wind (Minneapolis, MN) [32]
Solar
SunPower

Data

  • 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.‚"
  • Based on an silicon all-back-contact solar cell invented at Stanford University [33]]
  • Vertically integrated company with core IP at the solar cell and system level. [[34]]

SunPower Core IP.jpg

  • " As of December 30, 2007, including the United States and foreign countries, we had 80 issued patents and

over 100 patent applications pending across the entire company." [[35]]

Narratives

  • Annual Reports
  • Dr. Richard Swanson, Founder, part of Keynote at IEEE PV Specialists Conference [[36]] [[37]]
  • SunPower cae study documents are available in an online publications directory [[38]]

Tools

  • Manufacturing equipment needed to produce "high-efficiency solar cells, panels and systems" [[39]]


First Solar (Tempe, AZ)

Data

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
  • Acquired new research through a purchase of unfinished photovoltaic projects from OptiSolar [[40]]
  • Invested about $1 billion in developing thin-film technology [[41]]

Narratives

  • Annual Reports

Tools

  • Manufacturing equipment needed to produce thin-film technology solar panels


SunTech

Data

  • SunTech enters partnerships with solar develops to participate in competitive bids for solar construction. It is unclear what information is shared in these partnerships but at the very least financial data and basic installation information would need to exchanged [[42]] [[43]]

Narratives

  • In a partnership with Australia's Swinburne University on a project to research improvements to solar cell efficiency using Nanoplasmonic solar cell technology[[44]]
    • Both partners will contribute AUD $3 million
    • federal funding is being requested
    • Location: Swinburne’s new Advanced Technology Centre [[45]]
    • This collaboration is seen as a possible precursor to Suntech manufacturing solar panels in Australia

Tools


Evergreen Solar

Data

  • "Develop, 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
  • intellectual property in their "String Ribbon" solar cells [[46]]
    • patented crystalline silicon technology (uses less silicon than conventional approaches)

Narratives

  • Annual Reports, SEC Filings
  • Analyst Coverage, News [[47]]
  • Event Calendar, Audio Archives, Presentations [[48]]
    • Following these headings on their investor page lead to pages without content.

Tools

  • Evergreen Solar manufactures everything themselves — wafers, cells and panels [[49]]


Applied Materials

Data

  • Intellectual Property
    • Patents
      • Recently prevailed in EU patent case [[50]]

Narratives

  • Quarterly Solar Newsletter: The Solar Standard [[51]]

Vender Website Resources page [[52]]

    • Presentations: Applied Materials Accelerating Solar Power Cost Reduction [[53]]
    • Audio and video [[54]]
    • Photovoltaic Technology Whitepaper [[55]]

Tools

  • The manufacturing equipment needed to produce manufacturing equipment that produces thin film silicon photovoltaic modules [[56]]
Tidal/Wave

Verdant Power (US)

  • Home page: http://verdantpower.com/
  • Address:
    • 888 Main Street
    • The Octagon
    • Suite 1
    • New York, NY 10044-0213
    • United States
  • Phone:
    • 703-528-6445

data

  • Patents:
    • Kinetic hydropower generation from slow-moving water flows
      • US 2007/0063520 A1 [[58]]
    • Single sided power generator support frame
      • US Pat. 11429268 [[59]]
    • Rotating wedge leveler
      • US Pat. 11514900 [[60]]
    • Kinetic hydro power triangular blade hub
      • US Pat. 11889251 [[61]]
    • Non-fouling kinetic hydro power system axial-flow blade tip treatment
      • US Pat. 11634847 [[62]]

narratives

  • ???

tools

  • maker and installer of tidal power and hydroelectric systems [[63]] [[64]]


Ocean Power Technologies, Inc

data

  • Patents
    • Piezoelectric generation of electrical power from surface waves on bodies of ...
      • US Pat. 5578889 [[65]]
    • Power transfer of piezoelectric generated energy
      • US Pat. 5703474 [[66]]
    • Sensors for power conversion systems
      • US Pat. 6522048 [[67]]
    • Frequency multiplying piezoelectric generators
      • US Pat. 5814921 [[68]]
    • Protection arrangement for natural energy power generation systems
      • US Pat. 6617705 [[69]]
    • Self-powered anti-fouling device for watercraft
      • US Pat. 5552656 [[70]]
    • Piezoelectric generator protection
      • US Pat. 5548177 [[71]]
    • Field-induced piezoelectricity for electrical power generation
      • US Pat. 6376968 [[72]]
    • Energy harvesting eel
      • US Pat. 6424079 [[73]]
    • Electric power generating system
      • US Pat. 6300689 [[74]]


narratives


tools


Palamis (UK)

  • Home page: http://www.pelamiswave.com/
  • Address:
    • Pelamis Wave Power Ltd.
    • 31 Bath Rd, Leith,
    • Edinburgh
    • EH6 7AH
    • Scotland. UK
  • Phone:
    • +44 (0) 131 554 8444


data

  • Floating, articulated device

narratives


tools


Wave Dragon ApS (Denmark)

data

  • Slack-moored overtopping.
  • Sea testing in Nissum Bredning, Denmark

narratives


tools


Hammerfest Strom

Phone:

    • +47 78406200

data

  • "The Blue Concept;" Sea testing in Norwegian Strait of Kvalsundet, Norway

narratives


tools

Understand and identify cases where these companies are “experimenting” or “adopting” commons-based approaches

coming soon
Wind

  • The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has created a collaboration with the six leading wind turbine makers to promote advanced research and development [75]
    • Formed through a memorandum of understanding. Full text of the Memorandum of Understanding
    • "DOE and the six turbine manufacturers will collaborate to gather and exchange information in the following areas:
      • 1) Turbine Reliability and Operability Research & Development to create more reliable components; improve turbine capacity factors; and reduce installation and operations and maintenance costs.
      • 2) Siting Strategies to address environmental and technical issues like radar interference in a standardized framework based on industry best practices. Standards Development for turbine certification and universal generator interconnection.
      • 3) Manufacturing advances in design, process automation and fabrication techniques to reduce product-to product variability and premature failure, while increasing the domestic manufacturing base.
      • 4) Workforce development including the development, standardization and certification of wind energy curricula for mechanical and power systems engineers and community college training programs."
    • The information exchanged only defines the needs and does not appear to involve exchanging solutions.

Identify these cases and treat them as entities that will also be placed in our mapping*device (the quadrants)

Macro Comparative View of Wind, Solar, and Tidal
Macroforprofit.png

Identify what companies are the “Microsofts” of the field and what companies are the “IBMs” of the field

  • There is significant evidence that General Electric (GE) in the United States can be classified as a "Microsoft" in the alternative energy industry given their aggressive enforcement of their patents. One instance is their attempt in February 2008 to bar Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (Japan) from exporting their wind turbines to the US asserting that Mitsubishi's design infringed on one of GE's patents. (Reichman et. al. 2008).


Wind Companies 2008 Revenue Headquarters Primary Outputs Instances of Commons-based approaches
Vestas
€6.035 billion
 Randers, Denmark development, manufacturing, marketing and maintenance of wind power systems. ?
Clipper Windpower
?
 London, England turbine manufacturing and wind project development company ?
GE Energy
US$ 182.515 billion
 Atlanta, GA Wind turbine suppliers. Over 10,000 worldwide wind turbine installations. ?
Suzlon
$2.8 billion
 Randers, Denmark (moving to Aarhus, Denmark) supplier of wind turbines ?
Gamesa
€3.274 billion (2007)
 Navarra, Spain The company participates in"promotion, construction and sale of solar and wind farms; engineering, design, manufacture and sale of wind generators; energy solutions" ?


Solar Companies Revenue ($m) Headquarters Primary Outputs Instances of Commons-based approaches
SunPower
?
 San Jose, CA designs, manufactures and markets high-performance solar electric power technologies. ?
First Solar
$638 million (2007)
 Tempe, AZ design and manufacture solar modules ?
SunTech
?
 Jiangsu Province, People's Republic of China Wind turbine suppliers. Over 10,000 worldwide wind turbine installations. ?
Evergreen Solar
?
 Marlboro, MA "develops, manufactures and markets solar power products" ?
Applied Materials
$9.734 Billion (2007)
 Santa Clara, CA provides Nanomanufacturing Technology solutions for the global semiconductor, flat panel display, solar and related industries ?


Tidal Companies Revenue ($m) Headquarters Primary Outputs Instances of Commons-based approaches
Verdant Power
?
 New York, NY designs, analyzes, develops for manufacture tidal electric power technologies. ?
Ocean Power Technologies, Inc
?
 Pennington, NJ Company focuses on offshore wave power technology, specifically their PowerBuoy® system ?
Palamis
?
 Edinburgh, Scotland Manufacturer of offshore wave power technology, specifically the Pelamis Wave Energy Converter. This is a relatively mature technology that is deployed for commercial power generation. ?
Wave Dragon ApS
?
 Copenhagen, Denmark Tidal energy manufacturer producing a floating slack-moored energy converter of the overtopping type. ?
Hammerfest Strom
?
 Hammerfest, Norway develops and manufacturers tidal power stations. ?

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