Commercial / California
Solar for New Fitness and Recreation Buildings
The 2025 Energy Code added sports and recreation occupancies to the list of building types that must install PV and battery storage. For fitness operators and the developers who build for them, that turns a strong economic case into a code requirement: long operating hours, heavy HVAC, and in many cases pools and spas that run continuously.
Eventure's Role
Eventure plans solar and storage for fitness and recreation projects from the roof plan forward, coordinating with the mechanical design so the array has room on a roof full of air handlers.
We bring solar into the project at schematic design, size the Energy Code requirement, coordinate the roof, structure, electrical rooms, and battery location with your architect and engineers, and carry the system through permitting, utility interconnection, inspection, commissioning, and closeout.
Title 24 treatment
Sports and recreation occupancies were added to Tables 140.10-A and 140.10-B under the 2025 Energy Code, requiring PV and battery storage on newly constructed buildings with permit applications on or after January 1, 2026.
Design Considerations
What is different about fitness centers.
- New occupancy under the 2025 codeSports and recreation buildings permitted on or after January 1, 2026 fall under Section 140.10 for PV and battery storage. Projects permitted under the 2022 code may not have carried the requirement, which affects phased developments.
- HVAC-heavy roofsLarge fitness floors and pools need substantial air handling, often on the roof. Early coordination keeps the Solar Access Roof Area intact.
- Pool heating and water loadsPool and spa heating, whether heat pump or gas, shapes the building's energy profile. Solar and storage sized with those loads in view deliver real operating savings.
- Long hours and storageEarly-morning and evening peaks sit outside solar production hours. Storage sized beyond the code minimum shifts production into those windows.
Keep Solar Off the Critical Path
Don't let solar be the last thing standing between your project and its Certificate of Occupancy.
On fitness centers projects, as on every California building, the Energy Code requirement, the fire authority's review of the battery, the utility's interconnection timeline, and the building's final inspection all depend on the solar scope being designed, permitted, installed, and documented in sequence. We treat it as a scheduled trade from day one.
Solar and the Certificate of Occupancy
Questions
Fitness Centers solar, answered.
Did Title 24 change for gyms in 2026?
Yes. The 2025 Energy Code, in effect for permit applications on or after January 1, 2026, added sports and recreation to the occupancies that must install PV and battery storage under Section 140.10.
How big a system does a fitness center need?
The required size is the smaller of the floor-area method using the sports and recreation capacity factor for the climate zone and the Solar Access Roof Area method. We calculate it during schematic design and coordinate it with the project's energy consultant.
Related
More commercial building types.
Discuss Your Project
Planning fitness centers in California?
Send us the drawings at any stage. We will size the Title 24 requirement, review the roof and electrical approach, and map the path to a Certificate of Occupancy that does not wait on solar.