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New Bill in New Hampshire: C-PACE–Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy


After more than a decade of trying, New Hampshire is on the verge of adopting a powerful new tool that will help unlock a wide array of measures that will save energy, save money and reduce carbon emissions. This tool is called Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy, or C-PACE.

The core innovation of C-PACE is that the cost of energy-efficiency improvements is paid back through a special added line on their property tax bill. This is attractive, because these improvements are long-lived, and a building owner might want to sell the property before they have fully realized the payback for their efficiency upgrades. The next owner will still reap the benefits of the lower energy spending, and the improvements should result in a higher resale value.

The new bill being brought forward this year fixes all the remaining problems with program administration. It designates the Business Finance Authority as the program administrator, so that towns can delegate this task to a trusted, state entity. It cleans up the definitions, clarifies procedures and cuts away unnecessary statutory references. In short, it will at long last create a functioning C-PACE program in New Hampshire.

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