The research I have done leads me to believe that pretty much around the first world anyway, the only way to make money from the grid is be the grid.
I have read of some new enterprises where people develop an estate, be it homes or Businesses/ factorys and supply the power to the consumers themselves. They can make their own power say with solar, wind, Micro hydro or whatever and buy any shortfall from the grid.
This way they can get full retail price for the power they provide.
Obviously this is far from a tiddly winks/ hobby type undertaking but it's far and away the best return on investment.
Pretty much everywhere I have read of, the power companies pay you like 6 C a kwh for what you generate and feed back and charge you 25-40C for what you buy off them.
A very fair and equitable arrangement.... If you are the power company.
It's also another reason why I believe all this green save the planet crap big business and Gubbermints promote is a load of crock. It's all good and well while they are making money but the second saving the planet eats any of their revenue, Nope, forget it!
If it were really about all the green ideals you would get back what you put in at the same rate to encourage renewable energy.
But there is no money in that so they pay lip service to it while ripping you off completely.
I have no problem what so ever with using the grid as a battery. I have an analogue meter so what I put in spins the meter back at the same rate as what I use. I pay a daily Connection fee so as far as I'm concerned I'm paying for the line maintenance etc anyway. Pretty damn sure feeding the power the other way puts no extra stress or wear and tear on the lines or poles not anything else. As no one else round me has solar or anything else, I doubt the power backfed goes any further than 2 houses away anyhow.
I think the pricing tarrifs in 5 years time may be a bit different. Once the home batteries become more affordable and people start taking them up and having near zero power consumption, I'll bet they will do a big turn around. Wouldn't surprise me a bit to see an even cost/ payment system then.