Reconfiguring the Battery Innovation Landscape

Abstract

The development of battery technologies is critical for energy transition strategies. This paper offers a comprehensive assessment of the trends and developments of battery innovation. Over 700,000 patents from the period of 2005-2019 are compiled and analyzed. Leading patent applicants and countries of origin are identified. Major patent applicants are mostly large East Asian companies, while Japan and South Korea are the leading countries followed by the US, Germany, and China. Different battery designs, the main battery components, and interactions with other clean technologies are examined. Based on the operative definitions for incremental/radical and product/process innovations, a battery innovation typology is set forth. The main findings are that patenting in batteries rises robustly and the lithium-ion battery is the most vibrant technology; lithium-sulfur and flow batteries are the most notable emerging technologies, while electrodes are the most salient battery component. The most significant interactions of batteries with clean energy technologies are between battery charging and photovoltaic energy as well as between battery charging and electric vehicles. Incremental innovation represents more than half of the patents, while product innovation represents approximately 70% of the total patents. This study presents findings that could be useful when making investment decisions on the development of battery and auxiliary low-carbon energy technologies.

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