isn’t there a way with no moving parts? sorta like solar panels i guess. but using just heat.
and can this electricity be stored in a battery?

a thermocouple can do this.
it employs the seeback effect.
when two mettalic wires of different materials are joined end to end and the 2 junctions kept at different temparature a thermo EMF is induced and current flows.

How does the angle of insulation … affect the how much solar energy the Earth absorbs?
how does the angle of insulation and physical properties of the Earths surface affect the amount of solar energy absorbed

The angle of insolation has several effects on absorption of solar energy.
* Geometric effect is that a tilted surface spreads the energy over a larger area; such as near the north or south pole where shadows are very long due to the low angle of the sun. This can be worked out precisely in terms of angles using trigonometry
* Atmospheric path length changes absorption location (more in the atmosphere) so at sunset even an object facing the sun (normal incidence) receives very little energy. This is much more complicated than the geometry effect because it depends on dust and water vapor, clouds or "haze" etc.
* Reflection changes. This is significant over the oceans where when the sun is low in the sky nearly all light is reflected off the water - Calculations for an ocean with no waves is pretty straight forward, but the real situation is that the sea surface is not flat and the actual effect is difficult to model.

The other critical factor is albedo or overall reflection of the planet. Here we think of snow, clouds & water vapor, dust, etc. Although many of these are also related to (or effected by) angle, the vary in their own right.

How does the angle of insulation … affect the how much solar energy the Earth absorbs?
how does the angle of insulation and physical properties of the Earths surface affect the amount of solar energy absorbed

The angle of insolation has several effects on absorption of solar energy.
* Geometric effect is that a tilted surface spreads the energy over a larger area; such as near the north or south pole where shadows are very long due to the low angle of the sun. This can be worked out precisely in terms of angles using trigonometry
* Atmospheric path length changes absorption location (more in the atmosphere) so at sunset even an object facing the sun (normal incidence) receives very little energy. This is much more complicated than the geometry effect because it depends on dust and water vapor, clouds or "haze" etc.
* Reflection changes. This is significant over the oceans where when the sun is low in the sky nearly all light is reflected off the water - Calculations for an ocean with no waves is pretty straight forward, but the real situation is that the sea surface is not flat and the actual effect is difficult to model.

The other critical factor is albedo or overall reflection of the planet. Here we think of snow, clouds & water vapor, dust, etc. Although many of these are also related to (or effected by) angle, the vary in their own right.

what is the average cost, for a single family home, to install solar panels? I live in CA.

I just got a quote for my place. It came out $8/Watt installed.

The quote was for 24 - 210W panels. Dividing the total quoted price by the 24 panels comes out to $1,750 per panel.

This includes the complete system with the converter and cutoff switch to connect it to the grid. This is also a top-of-the-line system. There are cheaper systems with shorter life spans. My quote was for a system with a 30 year life expectancy.

There is a Federal tax credit in 2009 of 30% that will bring the system cost down. There are also nice state tax incentives in CA.

what is the average cost, for a single family home, to install solar panels? I live in CA.

I just got a quote for my place. It came out $8/Watt installed.

The quote was for 24 - 210W panels. Dividing the total quoted price by the 24 panels comes out to $1,750 per panel.

This includes the complete system with the converter and cutoff switch to connect it to the grid. This is also a top-of-the-line system. There are cheaper systems with shorter life spans. My quote was for a system with a 30 year life expectancy.

There is a Federal tax credit in 2009 of 30% that will bring the system cost down. There are also nice state tax incentives in CA.

If one wanted to build a solar computing farm, what would be the best motherboard to use? I’m looking for a motherboard with low Wattage, that can hold a reasonably fast and cheap CPU (>500MHz), maybe a Via Centaur or Intel Celeron. Ultimately I would like to build PC boxes with only a motherboard, CPU, memory, and networking (with PXE), no rotating parts or solid state disks. A solar panel on the top of the box would give power. The boxes could run linux and smp, maybe Gromacs or Boinc. You’d leave them out in the sun and they would go on about your protein folding or whatever. Maybe they’d synchronise via wireless, although cables would also be ok I think.
Perhaps I should rephrase the question - can I run a PC motherboard with less than, say, 20W? I’m looking for something cheap, since the cost of the cell will be high.
To answer my own question, the VIA CoreFusion platforms are most suitable for solar computing farms. For little more than $200 you get a motherboard and CPU at 1GHz with 10W consumption.

well the mother board doesn’t use much power at all but it depends on what kind of cpu you wan’t, i know you said something about it but it all depends try www.tigerdirect.com

Im stuck on this question for homework and i have looked really hard to try and find it but i still can’t. I need the answer to this question:
What impact does solar energy have on people, animals and the environment? Thankyou for helping

The sun’s energy, when converted through photovoltaic cells, has the positive impact of being a renewable energy source as contrasted to fossil fuels.
The sun’s energy, as a heat source, can be positively used to to warm water via solar hot water heaters or cook food via solar ovens.
The sun’s energy heats the ocean which results in the wind. The temperature of the oceans, impacted by the sun and the location of the earth relative to the sun, also moderate the earth’s temperature making existence on the earth bearable for us humans.
Negative impacts of solar energy could be when there is an excess of sun that leads to sunburns, or excessively hot cars (that you should not leave animals, humans, or ice cream in).
A negative of solar energy may also be in the negative impact the making of photovoltaic cells has on the environment because of the energy they consume use and chemicals they emit during the manufacturing process.

I have a home in Manchester Tn and we have been slowly remodeling the home. It is about 2100 sq ft of living space. Our normal electric bill is about 150 a month. We would like to add some solar panels to the home to help reduce the amount of the bill. How many panels do I need and what would be the cost? I am not trying to go completely of the grid but I would like to start somewhere and maybe over the years be able to add. What is your recommendation for a reasonable cost of under 2 to 3 k??

Unless there has been some major breakthrough in solar panel efficiency - Forget it.

I had looked at some "utility interactive" systems where the electricity generated by the solar panels went through a special inverter and into the electrical system of the house, any power you didn’t use went backwards through the meter and into the grid.

I figured that even if it was sunny every day, it would take about 20 years to break even on the system. That is, if I had invested $5,000 in a small system, to save $5,000 off the electric bill would take 20 years. If I had $5,000 to invest, this wouldnt be the place! It would take much more than 20 years of electrical savings to match even a modest investment. Then, don’t forget what happens if 10 years from now the inverter or some of the panels fail and need replaced.

Invest in fluorescent lights, maybe even LEDs. You will see a much quicker return on investment. Install more insulation, put in a heat-pump system.

I appreciate you desire to save some energy, solar just isn’t going to be worth doing, at least not yet.

Or does the sun shine in his dark part of the country?
Maybe wind turbines? There is a strong new wind blowing across this nation.

To get our country out of this mess, we need everybody to pitch in, and Joe is as welcome as anyone else.

Should China set up solar thermal farms in the Gobi desert? I believe renewable energy can help clean up China’s dirty skies. What do you think?

very soon, you’ll see both China and India get into renewable energy.
it’ll happen when it becomes obvious that the Himalayan glaciers are melting, and will no longer supply water year round as they do now. faced with the prospect of no water, you’ll see renewable proliferation like nobody’s business.