Merrimack County

Moratoriums and bans

1. March 10, 2026 Canterbury: Ban. Town meeting voters approved a planning board zoning article prohibiting large-scale commercial data centers as a land use; no project had been proposed. (Town of Canterbury, March 3, 2026; New Hampshire Public Radio, June 4, 2026; New England News Collaborative (NHPR), Oct. 20, 2026)

Updates, newest first

1. Oct. 19, 2026 Locke Road micro data center (East Concord) · Levitate's CEO described the site as one of three similar pilots and said he hoped to start building by year's end; the Conservation Commission had reviewed a permit to replant about an acre of wetland buffer cleared in 2025. (Concord Monitor, Oct. 19, 2026)
2. Sept. 29, 2026 Merrimack Station data center inquiry (Bow) · At the Sept. 29 select board meeting, according to The Dartmouth, the chair said Bow still had neither heard from Granite Shore Power nor received an application. (The Dartmouth, Oct. 2, 2026)
3. Sept. 22, 2026 Merrimack Station data center inquiry (Bow) · Residents spoke almost entirely against a data center during an hour of public comment at a Bow select board meeting, after a protest organized by 350NH's No Coal No Gas campaign; the chair said the town had no application or contact from Granite Shore Power and that any application would go to the planning board. (New Hampshire Public Radio (via Vermont Public), Sept. 23, 2026; The Dartmouth, Oct. 2, 2026)
4. Sept. 16, 2026 Locke Road micro data center (East Concord) · The Planning Board was scheduled to rule on whether the application was complete; staff recommended finding it complete and not of regional impact. (Concord Monitor, Sept. 14, 2026)
5. Sept. 14, 2026 Locke Road micro data center (East Concord) · The Monitor reported a major site plan for an 8,160-square-foot building, about 7,220 square feet of it data center space, on a nearly 21-acre lot with about 9.3 buildable acres; an earlier self-storage plan for the lot had been withdrawn in July. (Concord Monitor, Sept. 14, 2026)
6. Sept. 2, 2026 Merrimack Station data center inquiry (Bow) · Gov. Ayotte said she opposes a hyperscale data center in Bow, saying New Hampshire does not have the energy for it, and said she would put a moratorium in her next budget. (New Hampshire Public Radio, Sept. 2, 2026; InDepthNH.org, Sept. 2, 2026)
7. Sept. 1, 2026 Merrimack Station data center inquiry (Bow) · A Bow official told the Concord Monitor a company had held high-level talks about bringing a data center to town; the select board chair would neither confirm nor deny it. (New Hampshire Public Radio (from the Concord Monitor), Sept. 1, 2026)
8. Aug. 31, 2026 Merrimack Station data center inquiry (Bow) · Consumer Advocate Donald Kreis wrote on X that, at a meeting with his office and the state Department of Energy, an Eversource executive mentioned a developer weighing a Bow data center of "up to 200 MW." (New Hampshire Bulletin (via The Boston Globe), Sept. 2, 2026; The Dartmouth, Oct. 2, 2026)
9. June 2026 Locke Road micro data center (East Concord) · City Planner Kellie Caron classified the micro data center as comparable to computer processing, a use allowed in the industrial district, so no variance was required. (Concord Monitor, Oct. 19, 2026)
10. April 2026 Merrimack Station data center inquiry (Bow) · Eversource and Granite Shore Power filed a viability assessment agreement at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission covering grid connection of a 350 MW project of unstated type. (New Hampshire Public Radio (from the Concord Monitor), Sept. 1, 2026; New Hampshire Bulletin (via The Boston Globe), Sept. 2, 2026)
11. March 10, 2026 Canterbury: Ban · Town meeting voters approved a planning board zoning article prohibiting large-scale commercial data centers as a land use; no project had been proposed. (Town of Canterbury, March 3, 2026; New Hampshire Public Radio, June 4, 2026; New England News Collaborative (NHPR), Oct. 20, 2026)
12. Sept. 2025 Merrimack Station data center inquiry (Bow) · New England's last operating coal plant, Merrimack Station, went offline in September 2025; Granite Shore Power had said it would reuse the land for solar and battery storage. (InDepthNH.org, Sept. 2, 2026; New Hampshire Bulletin (via The Boston Globe), Sept. 2, 2026)

Statewide

No data-center-specific tax exemption was found in New Hampshire law. The state levies no general sales tax, so the sales-and-use tax breaks on servers and equipment that other states offer data centers do not exist here; a data center consultant told The Dartmouth the state therefore cannot offer that incentive, and said the governor's office had held conversations about other incentives (none found enacted). (The Dartmouth, March 5, 2026) New Hampshire has no state siting or zoning statute for data centers. SB 439 (2026, Sen. Debra Altschiller) began as setbacks, noise limits, proof of grid capacity and local authority to regulate; the Senate stripped most of it (passed 16-8, Jan. 29, 2026), a House committee recommended 11-9 a version making data centers permitted by right in commercial and industrial zones and barring stricter local rules, and the House tabled it May 14, 2026; it died on the table when the session ended Aug. 19, 2026. (New Hampshire General Court, Aug. 19, 2026; New Hampshire Public Radio (from the New Hampshire Bulletin), May 7, 2026; InDepthNH.org, May 20, 2026; New Hampshire Public Radio (from the Concord Monitor), Sept. 18, 2026) Other 2026 bills: HB 1265 (a one-year statewide ban on starting data center construction plus a study committee) was killed on a voice vote March 11, 2026, after a 15-0 committee recommendation; HB 1722 (directing the PUC to create a separate rate class for large-energy-use facilities so their costs are not shifted to other customers) was killed 185-156 on March 12, 2026; HB 1124, the 'right to compute' bill, passed the House March 11, 2026, and the Senate sent it to interim study in May 2026. (New Hampshire General Court, March 11, 2026; New Hampshire General Court, March 12, 2026; New Hampshire General Court, May 14, 2026; New Hampshire Bulletin, March 13, 2026) HB 672 (2025), signed Aug. 1, 2025 (Chapter 285), creates a category of 'off-grid electricity providers' that are exempt from certain utility regulation so long as they stay independent of the regulated grid; House energy committee chair Michael Vose cited it as part of a policy climate open to data centers, and The Dartmouth noted Ayotte signed it a year before turning against data centers. (New Hampshire General Court, Aug. 1, 2025; The Dartmouth, March 5, 2026; The Dartmouth, Oct. 2, 2026) Nuclear: HB 710 (2025), which would have let electric utilities own and offer advanced nuclear resources, stalled in a conference committee whose report was not filed (July 2025), so it did not pass. Gov. Kelly Ayotte's Executive Order 2026-01, signed March 26, 2026, tells the Department of Energy to open proceedings on the barriers to and options for new nuclear generation, deliver a preliminary nuclear roadmap within six months and file a final report within 24 months. (bills.nhliberty.org (unofficial mirror of the General Court docket), July 8, 2025; Office of the Governor (copy posted by the New Hampshire Bulletin), March 26, 2026) Statewide moratorium proposals for 2027 (none filed as bills yet): Gov. Ayotte said Sept. 2, 2026, that she would put a multi-year data center moratorium in her budget bill (HB 2), which would take effect no sooner than July 2027; House Democrats said the same day they would file a 24-month moratorium; and Senate President Sharon Carson said Sept. 17, 2026, that Senate Republicans would pursue legislation as well. The next session begins January 2027. (New Hampshire Public Radio, Sept. 2, 2026; InDepthNH.org, Sept. 2, 2026; New Hampshire Public Radio (from the Concord Monitor), Sept. 18, 2026) Large-load tariffs: none found. A Greenberg Traurig 50-state survey of large-load (data center) cost-allocation tariffs, published October 2026, listed New Hampshire among six states with no action identified, and no PUC docket on such a tariff for Eversource, Unitil or Liberty turned up in the sources reviewed (the PUC docket site could not be searched). The House killed HB 1722's large-use rate class. Eversource said it has received several viability assessment requests from developers in New Hampshire, the Bow request being the largest. (Greenberg Traurig, LLP, Oct. 9, 2026; New Hampshire General Court, March 12, 2026; New Hampshire Public Radio (from the Concord Monitor), Sept. 1, 2026) New Hampshire data centers →