istockphoto.com/Todd Arbini
Energy production and patents
Winners and finalists of the European Inventor Award have contributed milestone inventions to the clean energy industry. Find out how patented inventions help advance the state of the art in solar, wind, water and biomass energy generation.
Energy storage: stable electrical grids, light environmental footprint
The rising proportion of renewable power sources in the overall energy mix calls for large-scale energy storage solutions to stabilise electrical grids in cities and communities. Explore the major technologies and future trends in electricity storage.
Climate change mitigation technologies in Europe
A new report outlines the relationship between patents and sustainable technologies in Europe. It is a joint effort by the EPO and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
"Y" searching sustainable technologies has never been easier
Database searches for climate change mitigation technologies have just become easier: A new classification scheme (called "Y02-Patents") helps retrieve "green" inventions from millions of entries in the European Patent Office (EPO) patent database Espacenet.
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Smart grids
Tomorrow's electrical grids are intelligent enough to manage themselves. Dynamically implementing renewable energy from wind and solar power, smart grids are reducing energy wastage via intelligent monitoring technologies - and patented inventions.
Photo credit: istockphoto.com/Massimo Colombo
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Did you know?
The future looks bright: Since the year 2000, global energy generation from solar power has increased by 40%. By 2050, up to a fourth of the world's energy demand could be covered by solar electricity.
Photo credit: istockphoto.com/Kerstin Klaassen
Focus: Solar energy
European Inventor Award (EIA) finalists from the photovoltaics industry:
Jörg Horzel (EIA 2013):
The German physicist simplified the production of solar panels with "selective emitters".
Adolf Goetzberger (Winner, EIA 2009):
The photovoltaics pioneer led the way for the alternative energy revolution with fluorescent collectors for solar energy conversion.
Martin Andrew Green and Stuart Ross Wenham (EIA 2006):
The Australian inventors developed solar cells with some of the highest efficiency levels ever achieved.
