Sure you can! It's relatively cheap and you only need the basic plumbing skills, and in most areas there are no planning regulations to prevent you putting solar panels on your house.
For solar panels you obviously will need somewhere to mount them that faces south (south east to south west). But you do not need to live in the desert! - modern panels will provide plenty of power in cloudy conditions, solar water heating systems work especially well in these situations.
Maybe start small and go for a setup to run outside lights, or provide power to a garage for example. There are all sorts of sites that can point you in the right direction - check out these reviews here http://solar-energy-diy-reviews.blogspot.com
