Inventions & Innovators powering the Energy Transition

In this update on innovation being made in critical technologies powering the energy transition, we provide our view of the leading innovators to watch based on:

• Recently-published inventions
• Overall weightings applied to enabling technologies.

How much of this innovation can be termed ‘sustainable’ technology?

Traditional environmental, social and governance (ESG) analysis and scoring typically starts with corporate sustainability reporting.

A lack of alternative data translates to a continued reliance on company reporting when measuring sustainability performance.

A whole new industry has been built up in recent years around providing sustainability research to companies and investors.

However, a scratch beyond the surface reveals that a primary challenge remains a lack of independent, reliable and actionable data.

Our ambition is to contribute towards plugging this gap using published patent data as an indicator to measure corporate innovation across specific technologies that enable sustainability goals.

Which technology areas are covered?

This report scrutinises innovation being made in critical technologies powering global energy transition.

Using our Universal Technology Taxonomy, we take advantage of structured patent data, using it as an independent indicator to evaluate the pace of innovation and the top owners of invention across energy transition-specific technology areas.

These areas include:

• Photovoltaics
• Batteries
• Wind Turbines
• Fuel Cells
• Hydroelectric.