A polygeneration system of generating methanol and power with the solar thermal gasification of the biomass is proposed in this work. The endothermic reactions of the biomass gasification are driven by the concentrated solar thermal energy in a range of 1000–1500 K. The syngas from the biomass gasification is used to produce the methanol via a synthesis reactor. The un-reacted gas is used for the power generation via a combined cycle power unit. The thermodynamic and economic performances of the polygeneration system are investigated. A portion of the concentrated solar thermal energy can be chemically stored into the syngas, and thus the energy level of the solar thermal energy is improved. Numerical simulations are implemented to evaluate the thermal performances of the proposed polygeneration system. The results indicate that H2/CO molar ratio of the syngas reaches 1.43–1.89, which satisfies the requirements of the methanol synthesis. The highest energy efficiency and the exergy efficiency of the polygeneration system approximately are 56.09% and 54.86%, respectively. The proposed polygeneration system can achieve the stable utilization of the solar energy and the mitigation of CO2 emission, and thus a promising approach is introduced for the efficient utilization of the abundant solar and biomass resources in the Western China.

In this work, we propose a solar-driven biomass gasification polygeneration system with the generation of the methanol and the electricity, and the thermodynamic analysis and the economic performances on the system are investigated. The main research findings can be outlined as follows:

(1) The syngas produced by the solar-driven gasification has a higher H2/CO molar ratio and the chemical energy level of the produced syngas is improved as compared with conventional biomass gasification technologies.

(2) In the proposed polygeneration system, the solar energy is converted into the methanol, which will facilitate the energy storage and transportation. The methanol production rate can be further improved and the system performances can be enhanced by adopting the Recycle-utilization scheme. The highest energy efficiency and the exergy efficiency of the polygeneration system approximately reach to 56.09% and 54.86%, respectively.

(3) All the feedstock of the system are renewable energies including solar energy and biomass, the benefits from the reduction of the consumption of the fossil fuels and the mitigation of CO2 emission can be highlighted. Moreover, the proposed system can achieve the stable utilization of the solar energy with a higher efficiency.

Although the solar–biomass gasification can only be realized at the laboratory scale at present; however, the conventional biomass gasification and the concentrated solar power will facilitate the practical applications of solar–biomass gasification. With the rapid development of science and technology, the solar–biomass thermal gasification technology will be made a breakthrough, and bridge current fossil-fuel-based technologies and future solar chemical technologies, which will accelerate to achieve the commercial operation in the near future. It is worth mentioning that the integrated method of the biomass and the solar energy provides a promising approach for the effective utilization of the abundant renewable resources of Western China.