City of San Ramon Commissions Electric Heat-Pump Pool Heaters and Solar Spectator Canopies at Olympic Pool and Aquatic Park

Aquatics supervisors and facilities engineers with the City of San Ramon Parks and Community Services Department and coaches from the San Ramon Valley Aquatics club commissioned a high-efficiency commercial air-source heat-pump pool heating plant and a 48-kilowatt solar spectator bleacher canopy on Sunday afternoon at the San Ramon Olympic Pool and Aquatic Park at 9900 Broadmoor Drive (adjacent to California High School) in central San Ramon. Featuring a 50-meter-by-25-yard outdoor Olympic competition pool and a twenty-five-yard instructional diving and warm-water therapy pool, the municipal aquatic center serves more than 165,000 annual lap swimmers, high-school water-polo athletes, and summer swim-lesson families.

To reduce the facility's reliance on natural-gas boilers while maintaining a steady 79.5-degree competition water temperature through chilly autumn mornings, mechanical contractors installed four cascade titanium heat-exchanger air-source heat pumps paired with automated variable-frequency filtration drives. Working in tandem with existing rooftop solar-thermal collectors, the electric heat-pump array cuts aquatic center carbon emissions by 68 percent and saves the city an estimated $52,000 annually in utility bills.

Along the western pool deck overlooking the 50-meter course, steel erectors built a 140-foot cantilevered shade structure over the five-row aluminum spectator bleachers topped with 112 bifacial photovoltaic panels. The solar canopy shades 450 swim-meet parents and athletes from midday glare while feeding clean daytime electricity directly to the pool circulation pumps.

The $690,000 aquatic energy and shade modernization was approved by the San Ramon City Council through the Municipal Energy Efficiency Capital Fund. Lap swim and recreation hours are posted on the City of San Ramon Aquatics Portal.