Updated July 2026: the Essential Edition and its companion database are refreshedGet it on Amazon→
NH — State Policy Updated 2026-07-17

New Hampshire

Current law Proposed Active state law Environmental constraints Proposed/active restrictions

1) Incentive programs

Current law (enacted)

  • No enacted data-center-specific state incentive was identified. New Hampshire’s enacted tools remain general land-use, utility, tax, and environmental authorities rather than a dedicated data center tax-credit or exemption program; the 2026 incentive bill, HB 1739, was killed in the House on February 19, 2026. LegiScan HB1739, 2026-02-19
  • Sales/use tax exemptions: New Hampshire does not levy a general sales tax, so the state does not have the sales/use-tax exemption framework that many other states use for data center incentives. NH Department of Revenue Administration, accessed 2026-07-17
  • Off-grid electricity background: A 2025 law, HB 672, allows off-grid electricity providers in New Hampshire and was signed by Governor Kelly Ayotte effective August 1, 2025; this is not data-center-specific, but it became part of the 2026 policy debate because off-grid power could serve large industrial loads. LegiScan HB672, 2025-08-11; Business NH Magazine, 2026-02-10

Proposed (2026) — HB 1739 (data center development program; failed)

HB 1739 would have created the first explicit data-center incentive structure in New Hampshire law. Key provisions:

  • Eligibility and program structure: The bill would have created a new RSA 162-V chapter for “data-center investments and grid modernization” to attract large-scale data-center campuses, with eligibility thresholds for capital investment, square footage, and job creation to be set by rule. LegiScan HB1739 text, 2026-02-19
  • Property tax stabilization: Municipalities could have offered phased property-tax stabilization or payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) agreements for qualifying data-center campuses for up to 12 years. LegiScan HB1739 text, 2026-02-19
  • Business tax credit: The bill would have created a transferable credit against the Business Profits Tax and Business Enterprise Tax tied to qualifying construction costs, subject to a statewide cap of 20% of total construction costs. LegiScan HB1739 text, 2026-02-19
  • Energy and ratepayer conditions: Incentives would have required a grid modernization agreement with the Department of Energy and Public Utilities Commission, including direct interconnection-cost payment, a share of network upgrades, annual non-gas generation procurement or financing, demand response enrollment, clawbacks, and host-community agreements. LegiScan HB1739 text, 2026-02-19
  • Final status: HB 1739 did not become law; the House adopted an “Inexpedient to Legislate” motion by voice vote on February 19, 2026. LegiScan HB1739, 2026-02-19

2) Restrictions and moratoriums

Active state law

  • Temporary moratoria allowed locally: Municipalities may adopt a temporary moratorium or limitation on building permits, subdivision approvals, or site-plan approvals for a definite term after planning-board recommendation and local legislative-body action; the ordinance must be tied to unusual circumstances and may last no more than one year. New Hampshire RSA 674:23, accessed 2026-07-17
  • Permit issuance constraint: Local building inspectors may not issue building or occupancy permits for construction that does not comply with current zoning ordinances, building codes, or planning-board regulations. New Hampshire RSA 676:13, accessed 2026-07-17

Environmental constraints (statewide)

  • Large groundwater withdrawals require state approval: A person may not withdraw more than 57,600 gallons of groundwater in any 24-hour period from wells at a single property or place of business without prior Department of Environmental Services approval; the statute requires application notice to affected municipalities and water suppliers, and municipalities may request a public hearing. New Hampshire RSA 485-C:21, accessed 2026-07-17

Proposed/active restrictions (2024-2026)

  • HB 1265 (2026) — statewide moratorium proposal failed: HB 1265 would have imposed a one-year statewide moratorium on new data center construction and created a committee to study environmental impacts; the House killed it on March 11, 2026. LegiScan HB1265, 2026-03-11; LegiScan HB1265 text, 2026-01-07
  • SB 439 (2026) — municipal zoning proposal died: SB 439 passed the Senate with amendment; after a House committee amendment would have made data centers a permitted use by right in commercial and industrial zones and limited data-center-specific local restrictions, the House tabled the bill 304-11 on May 14. The bill remained on the table and died when the 2026 session adjourned sine die on June 4. New Hampshire General Court SB439 docket, 2026-05-14; NCSL legislative session calendar, 2026-06-12
  • HB 1724 (2026) — utility transparency/reporting proposal died: HB 1724 would have required annual utility reports on transmission costs, wholesale market impacts, capacity, and generation adequacy, including anticipated generation-capacity needs for data centers requiring 5 MW or more and recommendations to insulate ratepayers from data center interconnection, transmission, rate-structure, and stranded-cost risks. After competing committee reports on February 25, the House took no further action before the June 4 sine-die adjournment, so the bill died. New Hampshire General Court HB1724 status, accessed 2026-07-17; NCSL legislative session calendar, 2026-06-12
  • HB 1722 (2026) — large-load tariff proposal failed: HB 1722 would have created a 20 MW-plus “large-energy-use facility” class covering NAICS 518210 services such as computer processing, data processing centers, and web hosting, with separate cost-based tariffs and anti-cost-shifting contract requirements. The House killed the bill on March 12, 2026. New Hampshire General Court HB1722 text, 2026-03-12; LegiScan HB1722, 2026-03-12
  • HB 1745 (2026) — adjacent utility cost-recovery bill died: HB 1745 was not data-center-specific, but it would have prohibited utilities from recovering certain contested-proceeding, trade-association, and advertising costs through rates. After competing committee reports on February 25, the House took no further action before the June 4 sine-die adjournment, so the bill died. New Hampshire General Court HB1745 status, accessed 2026-07-17; NCSL legislative session calendar, 2026-06-12
  • SB 163 (2025) — moratoria repeal failed: SB 163 proposed repealing RSA 674:23, the local temporary moratoria authority; it failed in 2025, leaving local moratorium authority in place. LegiScan SB163, 2025-10-16

3) Local governance

4) Legislative activity (2024-2026)

2026 Session

2025 Session

5) Notable projects / operators in New Hampshire

  • FirstLight Bedford expansion: FirstLight announced on March 10, 2026 that it was expanding its Bedford, New Hampshire data center by adding about 25% more data center space, additional power and cooling infrastructure, up to 100 additional racks, and private suites/caged environments for enterprise and AI-driven edge workloads. The announcement did not disclose investment dollars or MW. FirstLight, 2026-03-10
  • FirstLight existing NH footprint: FirstLight lists data center locations in Portsmouth, Keene, Manchester, Lebanon, and Bedford, indicating an established colocation/operator presence but not hyperscale campus development. FirstLight, accessed 2026-07-17
  • Fidium/Consolidated existing NH footprint: Fidium Business, the Consolidated Communications brand, lists New Hampshire data centers in Manchester and Laconia. Fidium Business, accessed 2026-07-17
  • Nottingham proposal withdrawn but potentially revivable: Thomas Moulton proposed converting an existing roughly 200,000-square-foot warehouse at 145 Old Turnpike Road in Nottingham Business Park into a data center. He estimated an investment in the “tens of millions of dollars” and only a few on-site jobs; no MW was disclosed. Moulton withdrew the conceptual proposal on May 27, but said on July 3 that he might reintroduce it after further research, leaving the project withdrawn rather than definitively cancelled as of July 17. Granite Post, 2026-05-27; Yahoo News/Seacoastonline, 2026-07-03
  • Statewide facility scale: NHPR reported in June 2026 that New Hampshire had 10 small-scale data centers, the third-fewest among states, with no hyperscalers. NHPR, 2026-06-04

Source notes & methodology

  • Priority was given to primary sources: New Hampshire General Court bill text/status pages, RSA text, municipal warrant/results documents, and operator announcements. LegiScan, NHPR, Valley News/New Hampshire Bulletin, and Business NH Magazine were used where they supplied session status, local-government context, or contemporaneous reporting not available in a single primary source.
  • Searches through July 17, 2026 did not identify any enacted 2026 New Hampshire data-center incentive, statewide moratorium, statewide data-center zoning statute, state PUC large-load tariff order, or government data-center-specific fiscal impact audit. The June 18 federal ISO-NE large-load proceeding is covered in the companion state-energy file. New Hampshire General Court bill status system, accessed 2026-07-17; New Hampshire PUC docket book, accessed 2026-07-17