A review and outlook on cloud energy storage: An aggregated and shared utilizing method of energy storage system

Energy storage technology is recognized as an underpinning technology to have great potential in coping with a high proportion of renewable power integration and decarbonizing power system. However, the costs of energy storage facilities remain high-level and it makes energy storage a luxury in many application fields. To address this issue, a new type of energy storage business model named cloud energy storage was proposed, inspired by the sharing economy in recent years. This paper presents a review and outlook on cloud energy storage technology. The paper starts with the introduction of the basic concept, fundamental structure, and superiorities of cloud energy storage. Facing the energy storage utilization demands of the users on the source side, grid side, and demand side, the typical application scenarios of cloud energy storage are analyzed, and the corresponding state-of-art pilot trials are introduced. After that, the theoretical research framework of the cloud energy storage technology is presented, and the research status of cloud energy storage technology is surveyed. Finally, considering the combination of cloud energy storage and other advanced energy and information technology such as multi-energy coordination and blockchain, the evolution path and development prospects of cloud energy storage are discussed.