Hydrogen is one of the ideal secondary energies in the future and has attracted considerable attention all over the world. The storage of hydrogen is the most critical issue for the application of hydrogen energy. The application of hydrogen requires the development of an efficient and effective method for hydrogen storage that can store hydrogen safely and supply it at near room temperature and ambient pressure. In recent years, attention has been mainly focused on 'solid hydrogen storage materials. Borohydrides, alanates and amides composed of light elements possess quite high hydrogen storage capacity and good safety so that they are viewed as one of the most promising hydrogen storage materials. The recent studies of these light elements hydrogen storage materials and their composite systems are reviewed in this paper. At the same time, the development trend of light elements hydrogen storage materials is also introduced.