The Clean Energy Patent Growth Index (CEPGI) recently released its Second Quarter 2014 Results.  Researched and published by the Heslin Rothenberg law firm, CEPGI is a quarterly report on clean energy patents issued in the United States.

The big news is that the 940 green patents granted in the second quarter of 2014 is the highest total for any quarter since CEPGI began tracking green patent trends in 2002.  This is a jump of 250 from the first quarter and 200 more than Q2 last year.

The largest number of green patents was in solar technology, with 306 solar patents, up 55 from the first quarter.  This is an all-time high for solar patent grants and is part of a recent and sustained dominance, according to the report:

Solar patents were at a new high and again led the other technology sectors in the second quarter for the fifth quarter in a row…

Fuel cell patents were in second place at 232, a jump of 70 patents over the first quarter.  Wind patents were up 43 to 166, to take third place, while hybrid/electric vehicle patents were in fourth place with 142.  Next was biofuel/biomass patents, which reached a new high of 71, tidal patents (16), and geothermal patents (5).

The top green patentee for the second quarter of 2014 was Toyota, which had 33 patents granted, divided between fuel cells and hybrid/electric vehicles.  Toyota took the crown from the leader of the prior quarter, General Motors, which was in second place with 30 granted green patents, most of which were fuel cell patents.

Vestas and Samsung tied for third place, each with 26 patents.  All 26 Vestas patents were, unsurprisingly, in wind technology, and Samsung had 14 fuel cell patents, 11 solar patents, and one biofuel/biomass patent.  Honda, Hyundai, and Ford took the next three spots, followed by GE, Mitsubishi, and Panasonic.

CEPGI also breaks out its data by jurisdiction, looking at the countries and individual U.S. states of green patentees.  Japan was the Q2 leader with 183 green patents granted.  California took second place with 98 patents, followed by Germany  with 92, and Korea with 90.  Michigan (56), Taiwan (38), New York (31), Denmark (30), France (24), and Texas (24) rounded out the top ten.

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