Monday January 10, 2000 6:20 a.m. EST Y-2-K a Windfall for Windmill Maker

Duluth, Minnesota-AP -- The Y-2-K fears will be remembered by many as a farce -- but they'll forever bring fond memories to Elliott Bayly.

As founder and chief executive of a company that makes wind generators and solar electric equipment, he watched sales soar 50 percent last year.

That proved a problem for World Power Technologies of Duluth, Minnesota -- which has only 15 employees. Bayly says they became so back-ordered, they could no longer guarantee delivery in time for the new year.

Demand was so strong, they even sold the display windmill on top of the company's building in downtown Duluth.

Bayly's systems don't come cheap. A sophisticated wind and solar power set-up -- including photo-voltaic (vohl-TAY'-ihk) roof shingles -- costs about $20,000, installed.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), January 10, 2000

Answers

$20,000 installed? I think Mr. Robert Cook would say NO WAY!!! Yeh, my friend bought a windmill setup, didn't pay as much for it, but I can believe there are people who paid $20,000 for it.

-- Rasty (Rasty@bulldoggg.xcom), January 10, 2000.

I got 2 ea. Whisper 600's from them, $1197 each. The towers are $437 ea., the battery $2100 and a few grand for inverter & misc. A lot less than $20 G's, but I installed them myself.

Kook

-- Y2Kook (Y2Kook@usa.net), January 10, 2000.

Please read.

OG's post notes that the $20K system includes photovoltaic roof shingles. These are a means of using special shingles in place of regular shingles to produce PV energy -- the same as solar panels.

They are NOT cheap. So the $20K price includes wind generators and very high end solar panels.

-- (4@5.6), January 10, 2000.