Patents for enhanced electricity grids: a global trend analysis of innovation in physical and smart grids

Modern, smart and expanded grids are essential for successful energy transitions. Inadequate electricity grids can be barriers to economic activity and energy access while also making deployment of clean energy technologies more costly and complex. There are many opportunities for innovators to accelerate clean energy transitions with improved grid-related technologies and capture the economic value associated with the growing market for these solutions. This study combines the expertise of the international Energy and the European Patent Office and is the most comprehensive, global and up-to-date investigation so far of patenting for electricity grid issues. In the last two decades, electricity grid technology patents have increased almost sevenfold. Thanks to robust data on the technological, geographic and corporate distribution of this patenting activity, governments and innovators can track the trends and gaps that concern them.