Partnerships between the US Department of Energy and energy-service providers could inspire new energy-saving projects without upfront capital costs and without special Congressional appropriations, according to VMware Vice President and chief cloud executive Doug Bourgeois.

Bourgeois extolled the virtues of Energy Savings Performance Contracts (ESPCs) at the Virtualization, Cloud Computing and Green IT conference in Washington DC this week. 

ESPCs will work for agencies with little funding available for data-center consolidation, he promised. 

Not everyone agrees. The changes needed before an agency can achieve large-scale reduction of its property footprint or any physical structure change will demand considerable time and money, according to research company Input's report, Assessment of the 2010 Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiative.

An ESPC scheme asks private sector companies to invest in new physical infrastructure and provide cost-cutting services for agencies, explained Bourgeois, an ex-director of the US Interior Department's National Business Center.

The energy-service provider would then audit the federal facility's energy use and identify possible improvements, according to the DOE. 

After a period of consulting, financing the improvements could be arranged, it said. The improvements will generate a cost saving return on investment over the term of the contract with all additional cost savings accruing to the agency after contract. 

Over 550 ESPC projects worth $3.6 billion were awarded to 25 federal agencies and organizations in 49 states in the year ending March 2010, according to DOE's Federal Energy Management Program.