Well not necessarily, there's plenty of options, which really...

Well not necessarily, there's plenty of options, which really depends on if the plant operates in a batch mode or 24/7 continuous.

If batch, onsite solar and battery powering an electric kiln is a no brainer, because solar installations are so cheap. Can also direct some of that solar into thermal storage like MGA thermal's bricks and operate for longer periods in the evening, it only becomes a challenge if the plant is operating 24/7 and there's no wind because you need about 3 times the solar (one set to run the kiln between 7am and 4pm, and the other 2 sets to heat the thermal storage for nights). Even with grid backup the carbon factor is lowerish then gas.

The challenge with making bricks is clay is just such an obscenely cheap raw material it use it's difficult for anything else to compete.