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Commerce Committee hears bill to streamline CPACE financing for commercial and multifamily properties
Summary
Senate Bill 4 would revise New Hampshire’s CPACE statute to designate the Business Finance Authority as a central administrator and fix technical barriers that have kept the program unused; sponsors and stakeholders said the change requires no state appropriation and is voluntary for municipalities.
Senator Dan Innes, chairing the Commerce Committee, introduced Senate Bill 4 on behalf of its prime sponsor, describing the proposal as a package of statutory revisions to revive and streamline New Hampshire’s commercial property assessed clean energy (CPACE) program.
The bill would designate the state Business Finance Authority (BFA) as a central administrator for CPACE, correct technical wording in existing law and otherwise change the statutory framework so lenders, developers and municipalities can use CPACE financing for energy efficiency, renewable energy and related measures on commercial and multifamily buildings.
The measure matters because CPACE allows the energy portion of a building project to be financed separately and repaid through a property tax assessment rather than as part of a first mortgage, reducing the upfront equity a developer must provide, proponents said. "It effectively reduces upfront cost because some of those upfront costs are financed," Innes said during his introduction.
James Key Wallace, executive director of the New Hampshire Business Finance Authority, told the committee the proposal would not require state appropriations and would be run by the BFA as a self-funded program. "The answer is 0. It requires 0 appropriation, 0 impact on the budget, nothing to taxpayers," Wallace said, adding the program is "100% voluntary" and operates only in communities that opt in.
Wallace and other witnesses explained a common CPACE structure: lenders treat the energy portion as a separate, long-term lien tied to property tax assessments, which can make first-mortgage lenders more comfortable and free capital for the non‑energy portions of projects. Wallace said technical language in current statute — for example, provisions describing the CPACE obligation as a "mortgage" — has prevented transactions from proceeding and that the bill corrects those impediments.
Sam Evans Brown, executive director of Clean Energy New Hampshire, spoke in support and said the changes reflect years of stakeholder work to make CPACE usable in the state. "I'm very, very tickled to see this proceeding," Evans Brown said, noting similar programs in other states have brought substantial capital to energy investments.
Committee members and witnesses listed stakeholder groups that reviewed the revisions, including the Business Finance Authority, the New Hampshire Bankers Association, the New Hampshire Municipal Association and the National CPACE Alliance. Wallace said no municipality would be required to participate and that the BFA’s role would be to provide standard documents, run billing and compliance support at no cost to towns.
No formal vote on the bill was taken during the hearing. Committee leadership said members would have a chance to review submitted testimony and planned to "exec" the bill at the Commerce Committee meeting on Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. The committee then closed the hearing and took a motion to adjourn; members responded by voice, "Aye," and the meeting ended.
Next steps: the committee plans to consider the bill at its scheduled executive session on Tuesday; no final committee action was recorded at the hearing.
