Solar thermal chemical processing: challenges and changes

A strategy for conducting solar chemistry research is presented. It focuses on the development of technology and knowledge that offers society energy options from its current dependence on fossil fuels. The strategy shifts the traditional requirement from expecting a solar process to be economically competitive with current fossil fuel processes to being economically competitive with the best currently available sustainable energy options. This shift in thinking enables solar energy research programs to concentrate on producing the technology that a country would need if for any reason it lost access to conventional energy resources. The approach is illustrated with a current solar energy research program for producing Zn from ZnO.