I think you've misunderstood. The whole point of the tariffs is to try and help the UK reach its nominal target for generating electricity by renewable means.

Are you sure? What would be the point in including mCHP appliances that run on natural gas if this was the case? Surely they want to meet the carbon targets by either using renewable sources or low carbon technologies?

I don't think there's any consideration of the carbon cost of manufacturing, installation etc., since that's not included in the target, so they don't care about that.

There probably isn't any consideration in the manfacturing costs but maybe there should be. Whats the point in installing a PV system for instance if more carbon is generated during its manufacture than it will save during its lifetime? Of course one retort to this should be that without producing a market for these devices the technology will not move forward.

have been thinking about this for some time now and taken good advice from a mates dad (81 and still lectures engineering), quite simple forget about earning money from it .
do it because you want to and just see it as a capital outlay say good by to your money and see lower house hold bills, or do it because you have to say because of power cuts.– that's my reason. any time of year every week just can't be bothered resetting the clocks.
mates dad has two solar collectors for hot water and a wind turbine for a 12v immersion heater (if it isn't sunny on the coast it's windy)
there is so much hot water it is stored in the cellar which heats the house.

photovoltaic cells are not that efficient and expensive for the return, but the new infra-red cells coming out in 4-5years are going to be cheaper and up to 56% efficient – so they claim ,

good luck

If I had PV cells on my roof, would it be worth having a 12V ring circuit in my house, since all the electronics runs on low voltage anyway? This would save loads of energy in conversion losses…

Just a thought.

It's worth noting that if your generating system is connected to the grid in anyway then it will have to shut down if it looses that connection in anyway. Therefore, you wont be able to generate electricity during a power cut.

There probably isn't any consideration in the manfacturing costs but maybe there should be.

Of course – but then it's all a load of political posturing – not like all of this is really going to make more than a tiny amount of difference to the UK's carbon output, let alone that of the whole world.

have been thinking about this for some time now and taken good advice from a mates dad (81 and still lectures engineering), quite simple forget about earning money from it .

Downside to that is it might be better to spend your money on something else to reduce your environmental impact. For example buy your electric off an Eco company that only provides "green" electric. Without the grants and FIT then there is no way that I'd spend that sort of money on PV when there's a better option.

It's worth noting that if your generating system is connected to the grid in anyway then it will have to shut down if it looses that connection in anyway. Therefore, you wont be able to generate electricity during a power cut.

And I was SO hoping to have cold beer when everyone else's fridge had stopped working 🙁