Abstract
Recently, the application of blockchain to the setting, management, and trading of the energy system has formed an innovative technology and has attracted a lot of attention from industry, academia, and research. In this study, we use patent analysis technology to explore the development trends of the energy system with blockchain technology. During the patent analysis process, this study makes corresponding analysis charts, such as patent application numbers over time, patent application numbers for main leading countries, applicants, patent citations, international patent classification (IPC), and life cycle. Relative research and design (R&D) capability of the top ten applicants is estimated and the cluster map of the technology is obtained. The technical features of the top five IPC patent applications are related to the cluster map to show the development of energy blockchain technology. Through this paper, first, the basics of the blockchain and patent analysis are illustrated and, moreover, the reason why and how blockchain technology can be combined with the energy system is also briefly described and analyzed. The results of the patent analysis of energy blockchain technology indicate that the United States leads the way, accounting for more than half of the global total. It is also interesting to note that the participants are not from traditional specific fields, but included electric power manufacturers, computer software companies, e-commerce companies, and even many new companies devoted to blockchain technology. Walmart Apollo, LLC and International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) have the highest number of patent applications. However, Walmart Apollo, LLC ranks first with a greater number of inventors of 36, an activity year of 2 years, and a relative R&D capability of 100%. IBM ranks second with an activity year of 3 years and a research and development capability of 91%. Among various applicants, IBM and LO3 energy started earlier in this field, and their patent output is also more prominent. The IPC is mainly concentrated in G06Q 50/06, which belongs to the technical field of the setting and management of the energy system including electricity, gas, or water supply. Currently, most projects are in the early development stages, and research on key areas is still ongoing to improve the required scalability, decentralization, and security. Thus, energy blockchain technology is still in the growth period, and there is still considerable room for development of the patent in the later period. Moreover, it is suggested that the novel communication module such as the combination of the consortium blockchain and the private blockchain cold also provide their own advantages to achieve the purpose of improving system performance and efficiency.
Highlights
In recent years, innovative technologies have revolutionized the financial industry with the development and application of next-generation technologies such as mobile internet, big data, cloud computing, blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI), and the Internet of Things (IoT), followed by logistics, medical care, energy, and other fields that have begun to be gradually applied [1,2]
It is observed that from 2015 to 2016, the number of the related filed patents did not exceed 30 during that year, and there was no large number of public patent outputs. It was identified as the technology germination period of energy blockchain technology
Filed patent applications have increased to 53 since 2017, which indicates that energy blockchain technology has gradually begun to develop
Summary
Innovative technologies have revolutionized the financial industry with the development and application of next-generation technologies such as mobile internet, big data, cloud computing, blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI), and the Internet of Things (IoT), followed by logistics, medical care, energy, and other fields that have begun to be gradually applied [1,2]. Blockchain technology, especially, is the disruptive innovation on the financial economy, and has been addressed as a generation alternative to replace the internet as a new network architecture. Blockchain is a kind of underlying technology of Bitcoin, which is a decentralized trust mechanism. Through the blockchain, both parties in the transaction can carry out economic activities without the use of third-party credit intermediaries, thereby reducing the cost of globally transferred assets. Blockchain is applicable to the financial field, and applicable to the energy field [3]
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