Abstract: The existing energy storage technology was analyzed and summarized. The characteristics of each energy storage technology were compared. The future development direction of the energy storage technology was forecast. It was found that the recent large-scale storage was still dependent on the pumped storage power station,which was used for power distribution and power supply. The flywheel storage technology will be improved around the energy density and reducing costs. The compressed air storage will be developed in 10 MW level. The electrochemical energy storage such as liquid batteries and sodium sulfur batteries will be gradually applied in large-scale power plant storage, which was used for the peak load shifting and smoothing plant output. The rated power of superconducting magnetic energy storage and super capacitor energy storage was at the MW level, thus, how to reduce the cost and increase the life expectancy should be of concern. The molten salt heat storage technology will be developed with the development of solar power technology. The development of new mixed molten salts will be the direction of the future research.

Key words: energy storage, pumped storage, compressed air, electrochemical energy storage, heat storage