Scary thing is that due to the market distortion created by the way the 'feed in tariff' was set up in the UK, it was for a while very much worth pulling a variation on this.
We were allowed 4kW of grid tie inverter and the early installs were paid at a really silly rate for generation. You were also paid even if you used the power internally, but the standard install only had sufficient panels to make 4kW for about 20 minutes once every year or so (Remember, UK, seeing the sun is theoretically possible).
The way to make proper money from that setup? variac, rectifier, and some judicious DC wiring. I had a mate who's solar system was managing 4kW worth of feed in tariff from sunup to sundown.