A review of thermal energy storage in compressed air energy storage system

Highlights: • An overview of the development history of compressed air energy storage is presented. • The principle and key parameters of thermal energy storage in CAES are analyzed. • The current research status of thermal energy storage in CAES are summarized. • The future research directions of thermal energy storage in CAES are discussed. -- Abstract: Compressed air energy storage (CAES) is a large-scale physical energy storage method, which can solve the difficulties of grid connection of unstable renewable energy power, such as wind and photovoltaic power, and improve its utilization rate. How to improve the efficiency of CAES and obtain better economy is one of the key issues that need to be studied urgently. Thermal energy storage (TES) is an effective method to solve this issue. Firstly, this paper briefly introduces the development history of CAES. Taking advanced adiabatic CAES (AA-CAES) as an example, the basic principle, model and key parameters of TES in CAES are summarized. Then, the TES research and its application in CAES are discussed in detail. Finally, the future research and development of TES in CAES is prospected.