Abstract:

The development and utilization of renewable energy have posed severe challenges to the normal operation and scheduling of the existing power grid systems. The identification and implementation of cost-effective and sustainable energy storage and conversion systems are particularly important. The energy storage technologies mainly consist of four types, i.e., physical, electrochemical, chemical, and phase change. This study uses the INSPEC database for retrieving research papers. A bibliometric method and the VOSviewer analysis tool are adopted to obtain quantitative statistics and perform cluster analysis; further, the analysis results are visually represented. The output of global papers on energy storage has exhibited a sustained and rapid development trend, and China has become the largest contributor to this type of research. China contributes more than one-fifth of all the energy storage papers and more than 40% of the highly cited papers. China, the United States, Japan, and Germany are interested in the development of supercapacitors, graphene-based energy storage materials, and electrochemical cells. The energy storage technology is interdisciplinary, which provides remarkable application for basic research characteristics and presents a good diversified development trend. Over the previous decade, research has mainly focused on electrochemical energy storage, microgrids with renewable energy source and energy storage systems, phase change materials, and thermal energy storage systems and hybrid energy storage systems. Simultaneously, rapid development and application of these technologies have been observed in related industries.

Key words: energy storage, renewable energy, development situation, bibliometrics, knowledge mapping