DAVID DAYTON is a Co-founder and the Vice President for Distributed Energy at Pacific Clean Energy Partners.  His extensive work in energy efficiency and efficiency financing has contributed significantly to the establishment and growth of the energy service company (ESCO) industry in the United States and several other countries.  David founded a company that later became Select Energy Services, which has developed efficiency financing approaches that greatly increased the size of commercial energy efficiency installations.  He has worked with cities, communities, and non-profit organizations to design and implement energy efficiency programs in the U.S. and internationally.   

David initially founded the Hospital Efficiency Corporation (HEC), recognizing the need that hospitals faced to reduce their high energy costs.  David and HEC developed a financing structure through which client hospitals could pay for efficiency measures and equipment through energy savings, an approach that helped spur the growth of the ESCO industry.  HEC was acquired by Northeast Utilities (now Eversource), and it became Select Energy Services.  As an officer of the utility and Select, David led the company’s growth to become one of the leading U.S. ESCOs, with revenue in excess of $100 million annually.

Through David’s leadership, large entities with major energy consumption are able to increase their energy savings, reduce fossil fuel consumption, and benefit from increased reliability.  Select Energy, for example, developed a trigeneration plant for the International Airport at Bradley Field in Connecticut.  It captures waste heat from the dual-fueled generators to provide heating and cooling, and provides a backup to grid power for guaranteed power availability.  In York County, Maine, a new energy plant for a correctional facility was paid for through a contract which David designed, in which the electric utility designed, constructed, operates, and maintains the entire energy plant, while supplying all fuels and electricity.  The efficiencies built into the design and operation allowed the new facility to be built within budget without compromise, and the ongoing energy, maintenance, and debt service expense is less than the county’s line-item operating budget projections. 

David is currently Chairman of Clean Energy Solutions, Inc. (CESI), a company which he formed to provide consulting services to government and private organizations. CESI has advised many state energy offices and other government agencies in energy efficiency and renewable energy deployment, and recently developed a neighborhood-based distributed microgrid design approved by city officials in Boston and Chelsea, Massachusetts.

As a Co-Founder of Energia Global International (EGI), David helped the company develop energy efficiency programs and initiatives in Costa Rica, El Salvador and Mexico.  He served for a time as President of EGI, and was on the board from the time the company was founded until it was acquired by Enel S.p.A., the largest electrical utility in Italy.  David served as a senior consultant to the Henry P. Kendall Foundation in the design of the Cambridge Energy Alliance, a community energy efficiency initiative.  He was also a senior consultant to the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust.

David was elected president of the National Association of Energy Service Companies (NAESCO) and to the executive committee of the International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol (IPMVP).  He has been chairman of many public service, criminal justice, and health care organizations. He has numerous publications and patent applications to his credit.  Under the pen name David Sayre, he is the author of a book of essays seeking a rational faith for our children, a mystery novel, a picture-book with Rebecca Emberley, and The Flatland Dialogues.