Cypress Creek proposed two community solar projects in the town of Crawford at a planning board meeting on Feb. 13.

Both projects are community distributed generation, which means any resident within the district can sign up to receive power from the plant. While bills would still be issued by residents’ utility company, residents would receive a discount on their energy bill.

The power from the project feeds directly into the energy grid, allowing anyone to access the renewable energy without having to install panels on their own property.

“Instead of having the panels on your home, we have the panels,” project associate Charles Grady Mecay said.

Mecay said the expected lifespan of the projects are 40 years.

Svenski Solar is a two-megawatt project with 20 acres of panels on Route 17K, near Collabar Road. The project has the capacity to power between 400 and 500 homes in the Orange and Rockland Utility district.

The projects sits in a 70-acre parcel Cypress Creek purchased.

It will require five acres of tree clearing. The ground underneath the panels will be planted with native grasses and pollinator habitat.

Several residents brought up concerns over noise generated by the facility. Mecay said while the panels themselves do not make any noise, inverters that convert the variable direct output of the panels do.

At 30 feet, inverters are about the volume of a normal conversation, Mecay said. At 150 feet, the inverters cannot be heard. The two inverters in the project will be about 175 feet from the property line at 17K.

The Dubois solar project is a two-megawatt facility with approximately 15 acres of panels on Dubois Road, off Route 52. It also has the capacity to power between 400 and 500 homes in the NYSEG district.

The project will require minimal tree clearing at less than half an acre.

Both projects include one two-megawatt battery facility each, which can store and release power at night and when the sun is not shining.

“With the storage included that means that you’ll be able to use the energized power during the evening and during the morning when it’s most usable and people are using the most energy,” Mecay said.

The town zoning code prohibits containers, and the town building inspector has determined the battery storage constitutes a container. The project is appealing to the Zoning Board of Appeals to reverse the interpretation.

“We’ve requested a formal interpretation from the building inspector as to setting forth why he believes these are not permitted in the town according to the code and we’re gonna submit an application to the zoning board of appeals to repeal that interpretation,” project attorney Doug Warden said.

Both projects have an 40 year life-span, at the end of which the project may be decommissioned. Town code requires a decommissioning plan be submitted with the application; decommissioning must take place within six months of the site being inactive for one year. The code also requires applicants to submit funds in the amount that would cover decommissioning costs with the application.

The public hearing for DuBois Solar will be at town hall on March 13 at 7 p.m.