New Hampshire has joined 38 other states in adopting a program called C-PACER that lets commercial developers build certain types of projects involving clean energy more cheaply.

On Thursday, Gov. Kelly Ayotte signed into law Senate Bill 4, which had broad bipartisan support. It was co-sponsored by state senators Tara Reardon of Concord, a Democrat, and Daniel Innis of Franklin, a Republican.

The state’s PACER program lets property owners finance the cost of certain energy, water, resilience and public benefit projects through a voluntary assessment on their property tax bill rather than taking an upfront loan. This makes it cheaper and more feasible for them to add such programs to planned construction or to make construction financially viable in the first place. 

In her announcement, Ayotte called the law “another tool in our toolbox to help bring even more housing development to New Hampshire.” C-PACER does not apply to residential housing but can be used by developers of multi-family buildings.

The idea has been around in various forms for decades both as C-PACER for developers of commercial, agricultural, retail, manufacturing and multifamily projects, and the much less common program for residential owners.

Under the new law, towns and cities can choose to opt into the program, which is run by a centralized authority. It replaces existing energy efficiency and clean energy districts, which were run separately by communities, a change that advocates say makes it more efficient and feasible.

This was the first bill that Ayotte signed into law since becoming governor.