Improving Buildings Across Northwest Ohio By Financing Energy Efficiency Technology

Building owners can save on energy costs while increasing the value of their investment by participating in BetterBuildings Northwest Ohio, a program of the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority.

Through BetterBuildings, owners of virtually every type of building are eligible for low-cost financing to pay for high-efficiency improvements to their facilities and building systems. The goal is to make cost-effective energy practices and technology more accessible to individuals, businesses and governmental entities across Northwest Ohio – while also helping transform the way whole communities use energy.

Now, BetterBuildings offers attractive commercial financing as low as 4% with terms up to 15 years for projects that focus on conserving energy and generating savings through equipment retrofits to existing facilities. Financing is structured so that the energy savings will cover the cost of equipment, upgrades, installation and transaction cost, which make these projects "self funding". In addition to this innovative financing program, First Energy currently is offering significant rebates for lighting projects and motor and drive projects with other new programs to be announced.  In some lighting projects rebates can be 30% or more. 

In many buildings energy savings of 20% or more are achievable.  To be eligible, projects must be an energy efficient retrofit to an existing building.  Some examples of projects that can be financed are lighting, high efficiency HVAC, building envelop, energy management systems and controls, steam systems, compressed air and refrigeration.

For an extremely limited time, BetterBuildings Northwest Ohio is offering free building energy assessments to a limited number of qualified businesses who contact us so call today at 419.720.1102.  

BetterBuildings offers financing for projects that focus on conserving energy and generating savings through equipment upgrades to existing facilities. The following systems and processes are among those eligible for upgrades:

• Lighting
• HVAC 
• Compressors
• Refrigeration
• Waste Energy Recovery
• Electrical Distribution 

Financing for BetterBuildings Northwest Ohio is available thanks to a $15 million start-up grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. The funding was issued in 2010 as part of the Retrofit Ramp-Up project, part of the $80 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. BetterBuildings Northwest Ohio is just one of 25 programs across the nation chosen for participation.