My wife comes from a long line of parsimonious New Englanders, so we may have some success with reducing daily power needs. We have no plans for air conditioning, or electric toasters. The coffee maker gets boiled water poured through it except when plugged in.

I guess I'll just have to report back in a year or two on how it works out.

As for main bearing worries, the serpentine belt drive scheme works quite well without a huge amount of belt tension. I think there are enough high output alternators in use on Yanmars by now that reports would be circulating if there are indeed premature bearing and seal failures.