Latent heat thermal energy storage: A bibliometric analysis explicating the paradigm from 2000–2019

Abstract

Latent heat thermal energy storage is one of the most efficient ways of storing thermal energy through which the disparity between energy production or availability and consumption can be corrected, thus avoiding wastage and increasing the process efficiency. In the present study, a novel combination of clusters, networks, and bibliometric analyses are applied on an extensive dataset of publications to represent the overall structure and present interests of the field of latent heat thermal energy storage research. Data was collated for research trends for a 19–year period, between the years of 2000–2019, via the Web of Science database. It was observed that there was a slow rise in publications in this field from 2000–2010, but during the last decade there has been a surge of publications from 2011–2019. Around the time of the increase in interest, various legislations regarding energy conservation were passed. China, U.S.A and Germany lead in terms of total publications (5474, 2843 and 1169 respectively), however, Turkey leads in terms of average citation per document (35.70). In terms of authorship, L.F. Cabeza has the highest output of papers in this category (263 publications and average citations per document of 52.15) however, A. Sari has the highest average citations per document with a value of 72.25. Other observations include current patterns in the overall publications, the contribution of countries and regions, key institutions, authorship networks and collaborations, and most prominent journal. Overall results indicate the influence of government funding to specific areas of research, and how foreign policy may also affect research outputs of certain regions, countries and institutions.