Based in Stockton, California and officially incorporated in 2012, BIRAenergy is a for-profit consortium of energy efficiency, solar energy, and Zero Net Energy (ZNE) technology integrators and implementation experts with a flat organizational structure led by Dr. Rob Hammon. Rob is widely acknowledged by staff of the California Energy Commission and California Public Utilities Commission as one of the original “Fathers of ZNE”. His vision and leadership has included firsts in:
- Driving residential new construction energy efficiency programs through ancillary benefits (comfort and quality);
- Designing the first all- and near-ZNE communities in California;
- Bringing new products to market (e.g., low SHGC glass, air-tight ducts); and
- Developing builder protocols for energy-efficient quality construction and the installation and commissioning of residential photovoltaic (PV) systems.
Prior to founding BIRAenergy, Dr. Hammon was Principal at one of the largest residential energy consulting firms in California, where he led one of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Building America teams for 10 years. He is dedicated to combining cost-effective, highly energy-efficient technologies with solar applications to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and to move the residential sector to renewable resources for a sustainable future.
BIRAenergy’s Mission
To inform the design and development of sustainable communities through expert research and analysis, while fighting climate change by reducing the greenhouse gas footprints of buildings.
BIRAenergy ZNE History
- In 2001, BIRAenergy began integrating efficiency and renewable generation technologies, embarking on a path toward net zero-energy homes. BIRAenergy provided technical, marketing, and evaluation services to the first-to-market Shea Highlands community.
- The success of the Shea project sparked DOE/NREL to begin their Zero Energy Home (ZEH) Program, BIRAenergy (as ConSol) was one of four teams chosen in a national competition.
- In 2002, BIRAenergy(as ConSol) formed a Building America Program (BAP) team, ‘BIRA’ that, with support from the U.S. DOE over the past ten years, provided a broad range of technical assistance to builders, developers, manufacturers, utilities and governments.
- Over the last ten years, through BIRA and BAP, BIRAenergy has improved the efficiency, in over 13,000 homes (over one-quarter of the total BAP homes built over the life of the program), while simultaneously testing, analyzing, and evaluating technologies in single, heavily monitored homes, or in communities of homes, some of which were monitored at the community scale for over a year.
- BIRAenergy also affected the construction of more near-zero energy communities than any other entity the first, largest, longest-running, and most-analyzed large-scale post occupancy performance evaluations of near-zero energy communities.
- BIRAenergy has also worked with utilities, builder groups, and local, state and federal governments to develop innovative, synergistic programs to encourage super-efficient homes. Example - New Mexico Zero Energy Home program.