Emerging and maturing grid-scale energy storage technologies: A bibliometric review

Abstract

The rapid expansion of intermittent energy production has created an increasing demand for system balancing through energy storage. However, many promising energy storage technologies remain immature, necessitating focused attention from both academia and industry. To effectively guide future research efforts, it is crucial to assess the current state of research: identifying the topics that are being studied, recognizing the gaps, and understanding the trends. In this context, this study conducts a systematic bibliometric analysis of five emerging and maturing energy storage technologies across two periods, 2013–2017 and 2018–2022. This analysis aims to examine the evolution of the research landscape and the respective roles of academia and industry. The technologies under investigation are: 1. gravity energy storage, 2. carbon dioxide energy storage, 3. isothermal compressed air energy storage, 4. supercritical compressed air energy storage, and 5. power-to-gas. The bibliometric analysis follows a four-step process for each technology. The first step involves selecting relevant search terms, followed by an examination of publication and patent trends in the second step. The third step presents a detailed bibliometric data analysis, and the final step includes bibliometric mapping, focusing on keyword co-occurrence and co-authorship networks. The findings indicate that these technologies exhibit relatively similar research trajectories as they mature. Notably, the influence of Chinese research institutions has significantly increased between the two examined periods. Regarding the roles of academia and industry, a general trend emerges showing a strengthening academic presence across the studied technologies. Another key observation is the relatively slow development of research networks for most technologies, with the exception of power-to-gas. Additionally, there is a clear need for more research focused on environmental and sustainability issues.