The IP landscape for photovoltaics

Abstract

The photovoltaic industry, originally established in the 1950s, remains far from financial parity with conventional energy sources. Nevertheless the intellectual property (IP) aspects of this field already encompass more than 3000 patents in the US alone not including a wide variety of enabling technologies not directly identified as photovoltaic! The authors review the relevant IP and organize it by generic technology categories. A unique mapping methodology provides greater understanding of the landscape of IP in the photovoltaic arena across a wide range of considerations including geography, IP development and ownership trends, infrastructure implications and application concepts. Finally, the authors also present a rudimentary valuation of IP within the photovoltaic field based on citation analysis.