Acting with authority granted through the passage of Senate Bill 232 in June 2010, the Oregon City Council established an Energy Special Improvement District (ESID) for the purpose of financing alternative energy and energy efficiency projects. The city of Oregon and its businesses will finance improvements through the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority as part of a coordinated regional financing effort that will utilize a $15 million U.S. Department of Energy Better Building Program grant, which was awarded to the port authority in 2010. The city of Toledo established an ESID that was initially called the Toledo Ohio Advanced Energy Improvement Corporation, but will change its name to the Northwest Ohio Advanced Energy Improvement Corporation with the addition of the city of Oregon.
Unlike a regular special improvement district, an ESID does not have to be comprised of contiguous properties and can provide spot financing anywhere within a broad territory. Property owners anywhere in the district can implement energy efficiency improvements using technologies such as solar water heat, solar thermal electric, solar thermal process heat, photovoltaic, wind, biomass, geothermal heat pumps, anaerobic digestion and geothermal direct-use energy. The city of Oregon has already undertaken a pilot project at its local fire station installing a geothermal heat pump that will produce an estimated annual savings of $6,685 and will have a payback period of only 5.2 years.
