LEBANON — The city is the first in New Hampshire to adopt a revised statewide program that will help fund private energy efficiency projects.

The City Council voted to establish a Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy and Resiliency, C-PACER, district citywide last week. Under the program, private owners of commercial, industrial, agricultural or multi-family residential property can acquire long-term private loans to fund energy efficiency projects secured by a lien on the property.

“I think this is great for us to be doing. To me it’s a real win-win,” Mayor Doug Whittlesey said at a City Council meeting last week. “It helps advance the city’s goals on climate efficiency and renewable energy. I think it’s great for developers who can have access to better capital terms and it is going to be available to anyone, so I’m really excited to see this happen.”

The council voted unanimously to adopt the program at its March 18 meeting, with Councilor Laurel Stavis absent.

C-PACER funding can be used to cover the cost of resiliency, energy conservation or efficiency, clean energy or water conservation projects. Examples include installing solar panels or geothermal heating or completing flood mitigation work.

As soon as the Lebanon Energy Advisory Committee heard about C-PACER last fall, its members were interested.

“With the budget crisis, the city of Lebanon has no money to spend and so making private capital more available on better terms for energy efficiency work is a great thing,” Sherry Boschert, a committee member, said Tuesday.

New Hampshire is one of 40 states, including Vermont, with similar programs, according to PACE Nation, an organization which advocates for and tracks this kind of legislation.

The program was first established in New Hampshire in 2010, but was under-utilized because of “technical issues with the statute and banking industry,” Lebanon Energy Advisory Committee member Clifton Below told the City Council.

The new legislation, which Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte signed into law last February, was rewritten in collaboration with the banking industry and New Hampshire Business Finance Authority to iron out any issues.

Lebanon comes after Bristol and Rye, N.H., as the third municipality and first city to join the program.

Under state law, municipalities have to approve the program and agree to document the property liens. There is no liability or cost to the city for the program, which is administered by the New Hampshire Business Finance Authority and funded by private lenders.

The program allows developers to secure funding with less equity and the long-term loans of up to 30 years can have more favorable terms than others, Boschert told the Council last week. The hope is to fund projects that will eventually pay for themselves through future cost savings.

C-PACER is an important tool to fund projects “which are by their nature very capital intensive up front (…) but it produces a savings stream that can last for decades in terms of reduced expenditures to heat and cool and power a building,” said Doug Cogan, who works for the Energy Circuit Rider Program of the nonprofit advocacy organization Clean Energy New Hampshire.

The funding stream is also especially useful since other energy efficiency grants and revenues previously available through federal legislation have been repealed, added Cogan, who has been helping get out the word about C-PACER.

Developer Jon Livadas, who plans to build the 155-unit Lebanon Woolen Mill project in the former Kleen Laundry facility off Mechanic Street, is looking to be the first to take advantage of the new program, he said at the City Council meeting.

The Woolen Mill development includes electric vehicle charging stations and efficient buildings, according to project plans.

He described the program as “extremely beneficial for private developers” who can take on loans with better terms than they might otherwise have access to.

“This will make projects like ours way, way more feasible,” Livadas told the City Council. He did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.