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PHOTO BY B ILL GEMM ELL

mess

Anthony Paytas and the Solar Mower.

Solar-powered lawn
mower shines as
an example of
Israeli high-tech
`conversion.'

JULIE EDGAR STAFF WRITER

suburban staple — the lowly
push mower —is riding the
crest of new wave crashing
through the high-tech halls of
Tel Aviv, Haifa and
N Jerusalem.
And behind it are a Bloom-
field Hills banker and a War-
ren engineer who have
harnessed Israeli know-how
to create a machine that is
safe to use, quieter than a
vacuum cleaner, environmentally friend-
ly and maintenance-free.
Selwyn Isakow, 43, owns the world-
wide patent rights to the Solar Mower, a
sleek, sun-powered lawn mower that uses
solar panels manufactured by Israel Air-
craft Industries of Tel Aviv in conjunc-
tion with Chromagen, a company based
near Nazareth.
The pricetag is fairly astounding —
$895 — but costs are expected to decline
by 10 to 20 percent as the machine's pop-
ularity takes off and regulations on the
use of gas-powered mowers creep in.
In fact, Mr. Isakow said, a distribution

network is in place in 51 countries and
thousands of inquiries have been made
to Solar Power International, the com-
pany he operates with Anthony Paytas,
the mower's inventor.
`There are about 17 million push mow-
ers sold around the world. We're looking
at selling 200,000 annually. Our research
shows the market out there is somewhere
close to five times that amount," he said.
"It's probably going to make an in-
credibly huge impact on the world," added
Mr. Paytas, 57. "The dependency on fos-
sil fuels is a finite situation. Eventually
we're going to run out. To have devices
that function with a lack of fossil fuels
is a blessing for people who have to pay
exorbitant prices for gasoline as they do
in Europe or in disad-
vantaged countries
where there is no gaso-
line or fossil fuels.
"It has everything go-
ing for it and literally no
downsides," he said.
"We've got the finest of
all components in this
thing."
The 21-inch, full-
mulching mower leaves
nothing in its wake ex-
cept a tidy lawn. With a
simple height adjust-
ment, it is able to cut
down even field grass
and can be outfitted
with a "weed whip" and
other accessories that
can be used to power
other appliances.
Selwyn Isakow
The mower can be
submerged in water and still work, an ex-
periment Paytas tried in a neighbor's pool.
Charging the Solar Mower takes
roughly eight hours, but an optional
charger will cut the time to about three

hours. A 12-volt battery keeps it going
even at night.
The machine will be formally intro-
duced at a lawn and garden tech show
next month in Louisville, Ky.
Mr. Paytas started Mower Medic in
Warren in 1988, the same year he built
a rough model of the Solar Mower. His
persistence led him to Mr. Isakow's Ox-
ford Investment Group.
Solar Power International plans to
market the machine through retailers
and distributors in the United States,
where half of the mowers are expected to
be sold. A North Carolina factory is man-
ufacturing them.
Mr. Isakow believes there is a revolu-
tion under way in Israel's industrial sec-
tor as companies strive to
shift their operations from
strictly defense-oriented
goods to consumer prod-
ucts.
"The big breakthrough
is we've taken a military
and public works compa-
ny (Israel Aircraft Indus-
tries) and converted to one
of the very few consumer
programs. That is one of
its recent charters, to con-
vert more of its business
into consumer products,"
he said.
Mark Talisman is a
Washington, D.C., con-
sultant who helped write
legislation promoting
solar power over 20 years
ago and once headed up
the national Council of
Jewish Federations. When he heard
about Mr. Isakow's venture, he immedi-
ately got on the phone with a friend at
Chromagen.
RAY RIDING page 39