In this case I am going to be focusing on a solar generating system or PV. At the very least you are going to have a panel, a control module, and a battery to collect any power you don't use as it is produced, or for use in off peak production hours (at night). I have already answered the question "what is amorphous" so I don't want to get into that here. But I do believe it is a good start to your first solar experience. Mostly due to cost. 
Even if you manage to find an excellent extended warranty you may still be a little intimidated with the knowledge you are learning on a panel that costs more than the price you would have had to pay for a whole setup containing an amorphous panel. Also, the bit about it being a little more forgiving in the areas of shadowing and breakage, as I mentioned in the other article. In fact, I have seen people demonstrate thin film amorphous panels with holes actually punched through them every few inches with a hole punch to illustrate their durability and ability to produce even in these extremes.
You will have to decide what particular kind of panel you want to start off with though. But even if you do decide to start off with a higher production panel I think it would still be wise to have some amorphous stuff around to pick up some rays when the higher output panels don't have enough light to start producing. So you could still have a place in your solar array for these panels even after you are comfortable with your newly acquired solar expertise.
After you have decided what kind of panels to get you are going to run the power they produce through some kind of controller to access it. If you try to run anything more complicated than a dc fan off of the raw power from the panel than you are inviting disaster. Even something as simple as the fan may smoke at the open circuit voltage of panels which can be around 23ish volts in some cases. And even at that it is all variable depending how much light energy is actually being processed by your panel.
After the controller you will be in need of a battery to store the juice you produce. It is best to use the energy as it is collected due to inevitable losses in its storage, but that is impractical at times. I try to do most of my "heavy lifting" during peak production times, with "fresh off the vine" energy to curb my storage losses. Like grind my coffee beans with the 100watt grinder or run my high speed rotary Dremle tool that uses similar wattage.
There are several choices to make in the battery department too. There is a mind bending amount of information on batteries that range form the metal lined jars recently discovered in the Egyptian pyramids to the sexiest noble metals only seen in R&D labs currently under development.
The most common variety currently available inexpensively though is of the lead acid sort. Even if we narrow that field down there is an incredible assortment of voltage and construction variants.
I am going to suggest here to use a common deeep cycle, marine grade, 12 volt, vented(the kind you can take the caps off of and add distilled water to), lead acid, battery. Try to avoid the duel purpose variety for now, but if you can't find anything else it will do. Your battery should be over 100 ah, more is better here. This is an industry standard measurement that is meant to imply that a 20amp load will fully discharge the battery in 5 hours. You see ah = amp hours. So with a little simple math you can determine how long your battery will last (when fully charged), with the load you intend to put on it. There is some cause for caution here though due to marketing implications that would incourage the purchase of a lesser battery. Don't be confused by other capacity designations like CCA =cold cranking amps or, CA =cranking amps, or HCA = hot cranking amps, or RC = reserve capacity.
Unfortunately I can't, in good consonance, offer you a link. You see the lead acid batteries have an electrolyte in liquid form. This means it can spill and shipping is prohibitively expensive. I encourage the use of this kind of battery though due to the fact that it gives you the opportunity to witness the effect of charging and discharging on the fluids in the cells (ACID). This is of value for 2 reasons I can think of right now.
One is with an inexpensive controller that comes with most of the starter sets the voltage to the battery may fluctuate to a value too high to be acceptable, causing evaporation of hydrogen from the electrolyte. In a vented battery its no big deal, you just add more DISTILLED water. But in a sealed "maintenance free" battery it will vent, If the input voltage creeps to high, damaging the battery and may-be you.
Two they are usually more expensive than their vented lead acid equivalent for the same AH rating. And so are the charging regulators (in some cases) required to offer you the kind of confidence necessary to feel secure in your first solar experience . So you are just going to have to find a local store to go buy a battery at. Just remember the higher ah rating the better.
