Griffith Hack Clean & Sustainable Technologies

General Electric Company (GE) has successfully stopped its competitor, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd from importing wind turbines into the US by enforcing three GE patents. Here is an initial report.

The U.S. now has about 30GW of wind power installed, making it the clear global leader in wind power.  Wind power capacity is also increasing faster in the US than any where else.  About 2 to 3 GW of wind power is being installed every quarter, equivalent to about 3 coal fired power plants and worth several billions of dollars for every  GW.

The industry appears to be very competitive, perhaps not surprisingly given the amount of money to be made in these carbon conscious-times.  This competitiveness is now playing-out in the courts.

Interestingly, the amount of litigation appears to vary from one cleantech industry to another.  For example, I don’t know of Toyota enforcing its hybrid patents even though it has more than any other car company.  Toyota seems to prefer to enter into a commercial agreements such as licensing, and its 2008 annual report states that it has an “open licensing policy”.  It has licensed hybrid technology to the likes of Nissan and Ford.

Apparently, the GE patents are related to variable-speed turbines that adjust to ensure that a consistent amount of power is supplied to the grid without damaging the machines, and that deal with periods when voltage on the grid is low, such as during an outage.

While US cleantech companies like GE are protecting their interests using the patent system and the courts, many Australian companies are still not doing this.

Justin Blows