BIRAenergy team consists of world's leading experts on energy efficiency and renewable energy products and solutions, working on cutting edge clean energy solutions, and helping commercialize new and emerging clean energy technologies for over 25 years.
BIRAenergy has worked with and partnered with some of the world's leading organizations, helping shape and transform the clean energy landscape. Earlier, BIRAenergy led the BIRA team - a consortium of over 80 industry partners for the U.S. Department of Energy's Building America program. BIRAenergy's partners (including clients) have included - Fortune 100 corporations, industry leaders, United States national research laboratories, utilities, world's leading universities and research organizations, and local, state and national government agencies in the United States.
Rob Hammon, Ph.D.
President and Founder
Dr. Rob Hammon has forty years of experience in residential energy and sustainable community development. Dr. Hammon has directed research, development, demonstration and evaluation projects supported by governments, utilities and industry at the local, state, and federal levels. Projects led by Hammon encompass a broad range of RDD&D efforts in both new and existing buildings, at the buildings and communities levels. These efforts include evaluation of new and emerging technologies, developing, demonstrating and evaluating practical designs for zero net-energy (ZNE) and “plus energy” buildings, both new and retrofit; integrating efficiency and renewable technologies and designs; market analyses; carbon and other greenhouse gas assessments; design and implementation of energy-efficiency programs; development, implementation and interpretation of regulations; and development and implementation of training programs.
Dr. Hammon pioneered quality construction and “Zero Energy Homes” as market drivers for energy efficiency, especially via voluntary programs. He developed builder protocols for energy-efficient quality construction as well as for installation and commissioning of residential photovoltaic systems. In 2001, in a national search, Hammon’s team was one of four nationally to be selected and funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to do ground-breaking R&D under DOE’s new Zero Energy Homes program. This project was a catalyst for Hammon’s long-term efforts to integrate energy-efficiency and local renewable energy in zero net-energy buildings. In 2002 Hammon secured additional funding from the U.S. DOE to lead his newly-formed consortium (the Building Industry Research Alliance, “BIRA”) to work cooperatively with residential builders researching methods to help them design, construct, and evaluate marketable prototype homes and communities that would meet DOE’s goal of reducing energy use by 40% through incorporation of energy efficiency. Hammon’s goals were to push net savings of grid-energy used by homes and/or communities past the DOE goal of 40% to 100% or more by integrating roof-top solar after the efficiency improvements, a practice not sanctioned by the Building America Program at that time. Hammon’s approach of pairing efficiency with solar proved effective in the market and after a few years, with continued success and pressure from Hammon, the DOE Building America Program embraced solar and adopted the zero-energy home concept and goal.
Ian Hammon-Hogan, B.S.
Research Manager
Ian Hammon-Hogan is member of the BIRAenergy team as a Research Manager, where he provides technical support to top builders (DeYoung Properties, Meritage Homes, Pulte Group), emerging technology manufactures (TESLA), utilities (PG&E, SCE, SoCal Gas), state and local governments, as well as individual homeowners to assist in moving new and existing residential markets towards zero net-energy (ZNE) performance.
For BIRAenergy, Mr. Hammon-Hogan develops computer models of buildings to analyze and simulate their performance, and uses them to develop optimized energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies feature packages, with the goal of reducing the life cycle costs and increasing the efficiency of residential spaces.
Mr. Hammon-Hogan has been a leader in evaluating and developing implementation strategies for clean energy technologies in California, including solar energy devices, residential batteries for peak load reduction and flat-load profiles, smart grid integration with Demand-Response (DR) appliances, and strategies for clean gas-fired on-site generation appliances.