Solar aided coal-fired power generation (SAPG) technology is a new complementary power generation technology, which not only can reduce CO2 emissions of coal-fired power plant, but also decrease the cost of solar thermal power generation, and it has been widely concerned in recent years. Firstly, based on the working principle and operation characteristics of trough and tower solar fields, the different integration schemes of the SAPG system were summarized, the integration principles of the SAPG system with different coupling schemes were analyzed. Due to the high working temperature of the salt in the tower solar field, the integration apartment  between coal-fired unit and solar field can be at the regenerative system or the boiler. For the trough solar field, the integration apartment is at the regenerative system due to the low temperature. Besides, the research status of SAPG system thermal performance was summarized. At present, the research of SAPG system thermal performance is mainly focused on static performance, few are related to the dynamic performance. The static performance analysis mainly includes the system photoelectric conversion efficiency, solar power generation power and other performance indicators under design conditions and variable conditions, as well as the impact of the thermal storage system on the operation of the SAPG system. The results show that the photoelectric conversion efficiency of SAPG system is higher than solar thermal power plant. In the research on dynamic performance, the variations operation parameters in SAPG system when the solar irradiation changes in a period of time was analyzed, and the stability and safety of the system were also discussed during the process. Based on it, the operation control strategy of SAPG system was formulated. After that, the economic performance of SAPG system was introduced.According to the calculation, the levelized cost of energy of SAPG system is about 0.66 yuan/kWh. For the calculation of solar energy contribution, four methods: heat proportional distribution method, extraction capacity method, thermal economic cost method and solar energy contribution analysis algorithm were analyzed. Among them, the energy grade and the unequal characteristics of solar thermal energy in the system are taken into account in thermal economic cost method and solar energy contribution analysis algorithm. At present, few real SAPG power station are built, and most of them are distributed abroad. There are only two practical projects in China, which are Datang Tianwei Jiayuguan 10 MW trough SAPG project and Shanxi Guojin SAPG project, with relatively few actual operation data and experience. At last, based on the research status of SAPG system, the possible development direction of the SAPG technology were presented in the future: that is, seeking the SAPG coupling scheme to enhance the deep peak shaving capacity of coal-fired units, and the development of the combined heat and power generation technology of the SAPG system will become the key research topic of the SAPG technology.