If it came out directly as AC then there would be no need for an inverter and then you could be off the grid without batteries or a generator, right? Am I missing something? Or is it difficult to turn it to AC instead of DC?

The electrical current generated by the cells is DC and there is nothing that you can do about it except to attach an inverter if you want AC

Maybe this will help explain it:
http://tinyurl.com/32h4bbz

I need to power a refridgerator, and some smaller items. I don’t plan to operate
an AC unit.

Any commercial-grade solar panel will do the trick. The bigger question is how much you need, and whether you need storage.

If you plan to go off-the-grid, you will need to design a large enough system to provide both for normal use and sufficient storage to carry you through periods of no sun – and overnight, of course.

The rule-of-thumb is approximately 3 x your peak load, with sufficient storage for a full 24 hours of no sun.

Assume your refrigerator uses an average of 800 watts per hour and operates for 8 hours per day (probably a bit high in both cases, but better to be cautious). Assume your total additional average load is also 800 watts – meaning _NO_ hair dryer, flat-screen television, heavy-duty vacuum cleaner, electric heater, clothes washer, dishwasher, electric stove, and so forth.

You will need a 5,000 watt system with 30,000 "watts" of storage. That is a pretty large bank of batteries as you might imagine.

Your approximate installed-cost will be something on the order of $40,000 – $60,000, or $8 – $12/watt depending on a lot of factors.

What percentage of the rated power? Panels would go in the northeast. I mean just in general I know that panels are generally about 11-19% efficient but of the rated power what should I actually get on average given average conditions? If I had a 200W panel would I get 100W? 50W? 150W? Thx in advance.

Panels are rated at a standard test condition (STC). The rated output has nothing to do with efficiency. A more efficient panel is physically smaller than a less efficient panel, a 200W panel outputs 200W at the STC, regardless of its efficiency. You’ll generally pay more for a more efficient panel, so if space isn’t an issue, you may be better off getting a less efficient panel, you’ll get the same output, but it will take up more space.