Abstract: A plant uses one or more renewable energy sources to facilitate the processing of a hydrocarbon to produce hydrogen, syngas or other products. One renewable energy source is solar energy, which may be harnessed by (a) directly heating a thermal storage medium by way of a concentrated solar thermal (CST) plant; (b) converting the solar energy using photovoltaic cells to produce electricity and using the electricity to heat the thermal storage medium, (c) a combination of both, or (d) converting the solar energy using photovoltaic cells to produce electricity and using the electricity to heat a reactor by way of resistive or inductive heating. The thermal storage medium, when used, is arranged to store enough thermal energy to enable 24-hours a day processing of the hydrocarbon. Electricity derived from PV cells may be used to enable the production of heat for processing when radiant energy from the sun is insufficient.