Hydrogen from Solar Energy

For the short term, until the year 2000, it appears that coal and nuclear energy will play larger roles in the nation&s;s energy future. These energy sources will primarily be used to replace dwindling supplies of natural gas and oil and to aid in reducing the dependence on petroleum imports. Nuclear energy, the other short-term alternative energy source, has not lived up to its promise as an all-encompassing source of energy for the future. Solar energy schemes requiring concentrated sunlight are logically located in the desert or semiarid parts of the globe where cloud cover is infrequent. In the thermal conversion process, solar energy is collected in a working fluid that is used in a thermodynamic cycle to generate electricity or is used to provide thermal input to a thermochemical water decomposition cycle for the direct generation of hydrogen.