Abstract:To exploit wind energy resources in areas with low wind speeds and high shear, the hub height of a wind turbine must be increased. There are three main engineering solutions for high towers, namely all-steel towers, all-concrete towers, and concrete-steel hybrid towers (hybrid towers). Firstly, this paper compares the technical characteristics of the three types of towers. The results show that the hybrid towers combine the advantages of both all-steel and all-concrete towers, overcome their disadvantages, and are the preferred solution to address the challenges of high towers. Secondly, this paper reviews the development history and research status of hybrid tower technology focusing on tower types (chamfered square, cone, chamfered triangle, kidney shape, regular polygon, and “self-elevating”), and summarizes the domestic technological development of hybrid towers into three development stages and three technical schools. Thirdly, this paper introduces the domestic and international industry standards for hybrid towers, and outlines the existing key technology research on improving their performance, optimizing costs, shortening the construction cycle, and conducting health monitoring of hybrid towers. Finally, this paper summarizes the problems and challenges in the research of hybrid tower technology, including structural unification, application of sub-model analysis techniques, reliability research, upgrading of old hybrid towers, and research on ultra-high hybrid towers, which provides references for new product development. With high stability, a long service life and low construction costs, hybrid towers can meet the development needs of large wind turbines.