Anyone built solar panels?

I don't think it takes a rocket scientist to see in the future, and I'm a long time subscriber to this site (mainly because he's in Texas):
http://www.urbansurvival.com/week.htm

I was thinking about building some solar panels--I used to teach electricity when I taught school (high school physics) so I don't think it would be that technically difficult. I'm about to get a new roof courtesy of Ike anyway, so I thought this would be the perfect winter project. I have a large, gentle pitched, north facing (I'm in Texas--its never shaded) roof that has about 18-20 squares of roofing area available to use for this project. I'm beyond caring what the HOA thinks about it--there's really nothing they can do anyway (they've been, in effect, left powerless in Texas after numerous lawsuits). I'd like to have enough power to run the computer at times, the fridge if I had too, and some fans if it was summer and there was "grid electricity issues".

Here is the plan I thinking of using, because its so easy to understand:
http://www.mdpub.com/SolarPanel/

Anyone ever tried anything like this? I do know there is some newer technology out there for building them, but at this time it may not be cost effective. I also think these can be done cheaper than this now too--I think these plans are a few years old. Anyone found any easier or better online plans for building them?

The same person has also posted pretty easy plans for building wind generators too--I'm just not thinking about them quite yet. Although in a lot of ways it looks even easier to do.
http://www.mdpub.com/Wind_Turbine/index.html

Debbie