So we will be moving to a home out in CA, the desert part where its usually 100* Degrees. So we definitly want to get solar panels to reduce energy costs considering we will have AC all day and heating in winter. But we only to plan to live there about 2- 3years. Can you move solar panels to another house?

Sure you can! They don’t have to be mounted to the house, that is where they are usually put to take up less space and not be shaded by buildings, but if you have a large property, they can be mounted on stands. Alternately, I am sure they can mount them on the roof in a way that minimizes the damage and can easily be removed and the roof repaired.

I think the system is a great investment and the cost of moving them can be minimal, depending if you can haul them yourself. Anyways, I just wanted to include a link to some more info on solar panels http://homepower.com/basics/solar/

A. There is more pollution with green energy sources
B. it is better for our envioronment
C. renewable energy sources are hard to replenish
D. all of the above
E. none of the above

Those don’t make any sense. Because there is LESS pollution with green energy sources and if it is REnewable then it is EASY to replenish. So its E or B…

I am interested in the renewable energy, green field, etc. And i want to know if there are some universities offering these kind of online courses.

All courses and degrees dealing with "renewable energy" or "green field" without prerequisite degrees in Science or Engineering are bullbleep.

Students need a background in Science or Engineering (preferably Engineering) before they can understand energy issues. Otherwise, graduates of these phony courses just become loud and ignorant shrieking nuisances.

Particularly home built or inexpensive solar energy. I’m looking for something that will explain the entire process. Many books I have found assume previous knowledge of the subject and usually end with me Googling for a couple hours. Thanks!

You can go for "Earth4Energy". It offers a lot of fantastic home made solar solutions on their site, which can be built easily, for the low cost of less than $200.

The features are :
* Full and detailed instructions given which can be easily understood by a layman or the unskilled for building a home made solar panel.
* Other details on how to obtain the components available in the neighborhood material store for preparing the home made solar system.
* Tips on how to construct the alternative energy generators that is not readily available anywhere else.
* One time investment - and life long updates to the manual and video series, at no additional cost.
* Full cash back if you are not saving hundreds of dollars per month on your energy bill after using the system for eight months.
* Detailed instructions explained by videos

There are also testimonials given on this site. You can go through them.
http://solarpanels-for-home.blogspot.com

All the best

What happens to the solar energy that reaches Earth’s surface, but is not reflected back into space?

It heats up the earth’s surface and the atmosphere

People around the world are using it, I’ve ridden the clean quiet green public transit systems,
I’ve seen the windmills, ridden the bike lanes, etc. I’ve showered with the solar shower, turned on the lights and watched TV on the web with it too. And it wasn’t expensive.
Conservatives are against it, and they say it’s just too expensive.
Should I believe them? Is it wrong to believe my own eyes and ears?

I live in a country where we have a lot of green solar and wind energy.

people don’t support it because they don’t make as much money from it as eventually you can have your own solar and wind turbine so you don’t have to buy it from electrico grids.

Will the environment continue to be attacked
because letting those evolution touting, sex loving,
precarity hating, environmentalists win would be too hard?
Will the Congress refuse to even debate green energy development
before killing it?

That’s their goal. The only non-fossil fuel energy source they seem to support is nuclear energy, which also happens to be extremely expensive - moreso than many renewable sources.

I think the main problem is that a lot of Republicans get a lot of funding from the oil companies. You may have heard about Rep. Barton apologizing to BP yesterday for making them pay to clean up the environmental catastrophe they caused. It’s not a coincidence that Barton is the top House of Representatives recipient of money from the oil and gas industry.
http://climateprogress.org/2010/06/18/barton-apology-bp/

Another reason is that many conservatives have this irrational hatred of ‘environmentalists’. So Republicans know that by blocking green energy legislation, they won’t lose votes from these anti-environmentalists.

At this point it’s up to the Democrats. They need to put forth serious climate and energy legislation. If the Republicans want to block it, then make them block it. Make them put their votes on the record. Let it be known to future Americans that the Republican Party blocked clean energy legislation. Democrats can’t give up just because they don’t think the legislation won’t pass.

There are all kinds of problems with an economy dependent on oil. Why do we act as though the gulf oil spill is the first disaster because of the oil industry.
- the EXXON spill in 1989
- the murder of Ken Wiwa
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Saro-Wiwa
- the connection between oil production and cancer rates.

If we invest in Green Energy we will have less of these incidents in the future. If we don’t, we will not survive on this planet.

OIL = MONEY. In the 70’s there was a period time when American people could only buy gas on odd or even days depending on matching the last digit of their license plate. There was outrage and concern then and proponents of alternative energy sources spoke out. Their warnings were unheeded. Fast forward 40 years. We are paying the price for greedy oil companies and lawmakers who profit from big oil. The bp disaster is what happens when corporations are greedy and will stop at nothing to make that money! An investment in Green Energy is a necessity. Americans have been told it is not possible to make a great car that does not run on gas. We have been told there are limitations to Green Energy. We have been told that we need oil to survive. We have been told, "No, You Can’t." This is a nation of inventors, brilliant people who CAN make Green Energy and renewable energy work for us. We have to break the strangle hold that big oil has on our government and our lives. IF we survive the bp oil disaster, we MUST CHANGE.

I mean when light hits the solar panel where does the energy go and what does it become? Be specific.

Visible light from the sun is in the form of photon before hitting the solar panel. In a silicon solar panel, the photon is caught by the semiconductor material. Energy equivalent of the photon is then used to excite an electron from the semiconductor molecule. The aggregate of free flowing electrons form the current in a closed electric circuit.

The efficency of conversion from sun light to electricity is not 100%. The majority of light energy hitting the solar panel is dissipated in the form of heat. As technology advances, the conversion efficiency is improving, hence reducing the cost of solar energy.

I’ve run out of things to keep me entertained recently and as part of a larger project, I was curious if its possible to ‘McGuyver’ up a solar panel out of common materials?

It works, but just.

http://scitoys.com/scitoys/scitoys/echem/echem2.html

Another:
http://nature-log.blogspot.com/2010/01/how-to-make-flat-panel-solar-cell.html

Wingman