Ask most people to name solar innovation and they picture the actual solar cell. But some of the most interesting (and growing) patent activity in the industry sits below the photovoltaic cell itself. Rather, many companies are focusing efforts on patenting advances in the trackers, foundations, and installation systems that are increasing utility-scale viability and efficiency gains. For companies building in this space, the mechanical and electromechanical layer is where differentiation lives – along with meaningful software development, and in practice where strategic IP perspective most often lags the engineering. Industry examples, and a few recurring dispute patterns, illustrate the point.
Trackers: Protecting Motion, and the Deals Around It
Single-axis trackers are now the default for utility-scale solar, and the competitive edge increasingly turns on how a tracker handles terrain, wind, and cost. Numerous companies are actively filing U.S. patent applications on single-axis trackers including Flex Ltd., Nextpower LLC, and FTC Solar, among others. Some companies are embracing all-terrain tracker designs that use articulating joints to follow uneven ground and reduce grading, while others are rethinking actuation by replacing traditional motors, gearboxes, or slew drives with alternative drive systems. Both are reminders that in tracker IP, valuable claims describe how the system moves and adapts, not merely the bracket or bearing. A non-strategic claim drawn tightly around one linkage geometry is easy to design around, and also easy for competitors to learn from and adapt to. Drafting claims and disclosures to capture the systems level inventions including the control approach, the terrain-following method, or the actuation principle increase barriers for competitors to overcome. Tracker developers should map their claims across the full stack — mechanical, actuation, and control software. If a competitor attempts to design around one fence, they must also consider the others.
Foundations: An Unglamorous Layer Worth Protecting
Foundation technology is one part of a project many teams underestimate until the drill rigs arrive. Ojjo, Inc. (acquired by Nextpower) and Pier Tech Systems are some of the top filers on foundation technology used in solar installations. Newer approaches may reduce steel, installation time, or site-preparation work relative to conventional driven piles, particularly in difficult soils. And each of these can be differentiators in terms of actual viability or project deliverability at scale. Foundation innovation could be easy to overlook, but savvy companies in this space should consider routine invention harvesting with their engineers to capture potentially patentable ideas. One risk is that because foundations are buried and site-specific, companies might assume the know-how is protected by obscurity, but that is not the case. Rather, a competitor might be able to reverse-engineer an installed system, and trade-secret protection does not apply if it is disclosed because it stops being maintained as a secret. Firms here should decide early, and deliberately, which innovations to patent and which to hold as trade secrets, and should audit public disclosures before a filing deadline forecloses their options.
Robotic Installation: Patenting the Processes and Systems
Automation is also moving into the solar energy field with semi-automated approaches to assemble and install utility-scale plants faster and with less manual labor. Companies such as Built Robotics have filed patent applications relating to autonomous pile installation equipment for solar. Erthos, Inc. is pursuing patent applications directed to robotic cleaning and other automated deployment systems. Robotic installation highlights an important patent strategy consideration: the value is often in the process and the system, not just one or the other. Method claims, system claims covering the coordination of equipment and software, and claims on the data layer that drives the automation can all matter. Companies here should watch the seam between hardware and software patentability, and be honest about how much of their advantage is genuinely protectable versus operational execution a well-funded competitor could replicate. And with artificial intelligence entering the mix, companies need to stay informed about where the law is, and where it is going as it applies to inventions leveraging AI.
BIPV and Roof Mounting: Where Product IP Meets the Building
Other companies, such as GAF Energy, sit at the intersection of solar and roofing, developing solar-shingle or roof-integrated products designed to become part of the building envelope rather than equipment mounted on top of it. Building-integrated photovoltaics generate a rich but complicated IP landscape: design patents on the visible product, utility patents on the integration and weatherproofing, and trademark and trade-dress considerations because the product is sold to consumers, not just developers. BIPV companies should treat IP as a coordinated bundle — utility, design, and brand — rather than as separate workstreams.
The Through-line for Solar Companies of Every Size
Whether you are a venture-backed tracker startup or an established manufacturer, three lessons recur:
- Protect the system and the method, not just the part. Overly narrow, mechanical-only claims risk design around; layer them with actuation, control, and software claims, among others, and audit your current portfolio for opportunities to mine additional disclosures.
- Manage disclosure discipline. Pilots, RFP responses, and conference demos routinely start filing clocks or destroy trade-secret status.
- Run freedom-to-operate early. As patent coverage accelerates in the mounting-and-tracking field, companies risk exposure if they are simply unaware of their competitors’ filing strategies or established portfolio footprints.
Sterne Kessler works with solar companies across all stages of the IP lifecycle, including portfolio building, licensing, and enforcement. If this aligns with where your technology is headed, we would welcome the conversation.