The city of Bemidji, owner of the newly constructed Bemidji First City Liquor building, recently received a $25,351 rebate for participating in Otter Tail Power Company’s Integrated Building Design Plus program.

The Integrated Building Design Plus program provides design assistance, energy modeling, rebates, and comparison analysis of various HVAC and efficiency options for new construction commercial buildings. Through this program, the city of Bemidji staff worked with Otter Tail Power Company and a third-party consultant, to determine a energy-efficient design for the building.

The program was available to qualifying building owners, architectural and engineering firms, and developers planning for new building construction. To be eligible for the program, buildings must have a minimum project size of 5,000 square feet, be in the schematic or early design development phase of your project and meet the energy savings requirement of 5% beyond a baseline building.

“These efficiency investments, combined with our company’s rebate, will lower operating costs and result in a simple payback of under six years,” said Otter Tail Power Company Senior Commercial Industrial Representative Roger Garton. “The Bemidji community prides itself on being energy-conscious and the city is leading by example with this project. The end result is a beautiful and energy-efficient building.”

This project incorporated several energy-efficient geothermal heating and cooling system plus refrigeration technologies.

By — Destiny Wiggins