The Clean Energy Patent Growth Index (CEPGI) recently released its 2014 Year in Review.  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 3609 green patents granted in 2014 is the highest annual total since CEPGI began tracking green patent trends in 2002.  This is a jump of 434 from 2013.

The largest number of green patents was in solar technology, with 1238 solar patents, a 28 percent increase from the previous year.  Fuel cell patents were in second place, with 1024 (a 27% jump from 2013), followed by wind patents (623), and hybrid/electric vehicle patents (521).  Biofuels patents (230) were in the fifth position.

The top green patentee for 2014 was Toyota, which had 149 patents granted, followed by General Motors, with 126 granted green patents, Samsung (102 patents), Hyundai (101 patents), and Honda (97 patents).  The overall leader in granted green patents since 2002 is still General Motors, followed by Honda, Toyota, GE, and Samsung.

By technology sector, Toyota was the fuel cell patent leader in 2014 with 101 fuel cell patents granted, Samsung was the top solar patentee of the year (37 patents), and Hyundai topped the list for hybrid/electric vehicle patents, with 56.  While GE had been the top wind patentee for eight years running, Vestas came out on top in 2014, with 80 granted wind patents.

In 2014, green patent owners were a diverse group:  according to the report, “over 1500 entities contributed to the record total of Clean Energy patents last year.”

CEPGI also breaks out its data by jurisdiction, looking at the countries and individual U.S. states of green patentees.  The United States was the 2014 leader with 1504 green patents granted.  Japan took second place, with 696 patents, followed by Korea (346), Germany (316), Denmark (120), and Taiwan (118).

California was the leading U.S. state, with 385 patents, followed by Michigan (227), New York (132), and Texas (77), Ohio (56), and Massachusetts (55).

The full report can be found here.

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