Solar energy is the most abundant clean renewable energy on the surface of earth. Solar energy utilization is the most important part of the global renewable energy development strategy. Coupling concentrating solar power (CSP) with thermal energy storage (TES) to produce schedulable cleanpower is one of the important ways to achieve low-carbon transition of energy. Energy conversion efficiency and power costs hold the key to solar thermal power plants. Taking molten salt as an example, the development of thermal energy storage (TES)/heat transfer fluids (HTFs) systems with higher operating temperature (>565 ℃) is of great importance to improving the efficiency of solar thermal power generation. Chloride salt is considered to be one of the most promising TES/HTF systems for the next generation to achieve higher efficiency and lower cost. Based on the current research status of chloride salt, this paper discusses the basic research and development strategy of chloride salt, includingthe thermal properties, corrosion mechanism and corrosion mitigation strategy. The results show that the maximum operating temperature of molten salt is the key to determining the efficiency of TES system. However, the corrosion of metal structural materials in molten salts limits the development of chloride salt. In high temperature molten salt, the main means to inhibit the corrosion of metal structural materials are purification of chloride salt and addition of corrosion inhibitor.