A novel concept for the recovery of bitumen from oil sands in a natural gas limited environment with and without CO(2) constraints is presented. We suggest a feasible method for the recovery of unconventional oil in an environmentally friendly and sustainable way that has the potential of eliminating the need of natural gas as a process fuel. The proposed concept involves mid temperature steam generation for stimulating an oil sand formation. The steam is generated by utilizing solar radiation. The method uses the thermal mass of the oil sand formation to allow for cyclic steam injection during solar availability while still yielding continuous bitumen recovery. Feasibility assessments of the concept from both a thermodynamic and financial point of view are presented for a scenario of development in the Athabasca region in Alberta, Canada. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.