They make a flexible solar panel that
puts out about 50 Watts, open it's 54" x 32",
folded up it's about the size of a text book.
It'll run a laptop pretty easy.

There's no real problem with putting solar
panels on houses in temperate areas, (they're
waterproof), it just means you need more panels, 
so it increases the cost. Cost is the big downside
of solar electric panels, it costs more than just
buying the juice in the first place. There's quite
a few places working on making it cheaper with
limited success.

Solar concentrators rely on technology that can
be much cheaper, it's just mirrors. Evacuated
solar tubes can produce scalding hot water, or
you can build simpler solar hot water heaters 
DIY at very low cost. The heat can then be
directly used for heat, thus cutting out the 
90+ percent loss of turning sunlight to electricity
and then turning electricity to heat. The downside
is maintenance of the anti-freeze.

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