Whoever brings it to market and gets it into a very large number of homes and businesses first at a reasonable price will likely claim the innovation trophy.

Unfair? Perhaps, but energy inventions and technologies over the last several decades have always had a nasty tendency to be "10 years away" or "thought to be viable within 3-5 years", etc, and then promptly disappear off the radar.

It's not enough to merely invent and talk about it, marketing is important. Just look at the tremendous push that Bloom has done over the last several days.