Making Fuel While the Sun Shines

This article explores uses of solar energy as a substitute to fossil fuels. Solar energy is usually considered in terms of making electricity; however, it also has the potential to supplant fossil fuels in the production of liquid fuels, and in driving endothermic industrial processes. Solar thermochemical processes are feasible, and a solar power concentration process that harnesses sunlight’s infrared energy is the best suited technology for making solar fuels a reality. Another area in which solar commodity production may have advantages over traditional industrial practice is in the separation of pure metal and oxygen from metal oxides found naturally in many ore deposits. Solar fuels can provide a stable and strategically important energy resource; some may consider them to be the ideal solution for sustainable energy independence. Solar thermochemistry could potentially have the biggest impact in the production of hydrogen-derived fuels which would be capable of replacing those derived from fossil fuels.