Perspectives on thermal energy storage research.

The use of thermal energy storage (TES) allows to cleverly exploit clean energy resources, decrease the energy consumption, and increase the efficiency of energy systems. In the past twenty years, TES has continuously attracted researchers generating an extensive scientific production growing year by year. Despite the large number of publications, there are some aspects of TES that need to be further investigated in order to assess its complete feasibility. This paper gives a perspective on the state-of-the-art of TES, highlighting the research trends and the research gaps of different TES technologies. Using bibliometric analyses techniques, the main research gaps identified were related to economic, environmental, and social aspects. • A bibliometric analysis on thermal energy storage was carried out. • The state-of-the-art, research trend and research gaps of TES are discussed. • The main research gaps are related to economic, environmental and social aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]