The Vertical Stack Technology Coalition For Near-Zero Emissions PBC (VTCNZE) today announced a proposed national 'Speed-to-Power' framework designed to help the United States deploy approximately 600 GWh of distributed grid storage within approximately 48 months by adapting the emerging CHIPS-era public equity model to critical energy infrastructure. The proposal follows the federal government's recent use of minority, non-controlling equity stakes in strategic technology companies receiving public incentives under the CHIPS and Science Act.
VTCNZE believes that same taxpayer-aligned model should now be applied to the physical power infrastructure required to support frontier artificial intelligence, quantum computing, advanced manufacturing, defense readiness, robotics, and high-density data center growth. 'The CHIPS model changed the conversation from one-way subsidy to taxpayer upside,' said Max Davis, Founding Architect of VTCNZE. 'If public authority can accelerate quantum and semiconductor infrastructure while preserving value for the taxpayer, the same principle should apply to the energy infrastructure needed to power frontier AI. Chips do not matter if America cannot turn them on.'
VTCNZE's proposed framework calls for a coordinated public-private deployment model built around high-density, load-adjacent, non-lithium energy storage assets positioned near major computing and industrial load centers. Rather than relying solely on sprawling horizontal battery farms or years-long utility interconnection queues, the framework prioritizes compact, modular, vertically integrated storage structures capable of being deployed on urban industrial parcels, brownfields, underutilized public land, and infrastructure-adjacent sites. The company argues that the national AI power challenge is no longer merely a utility planning issue but an industrial strategy, national security, ratepayer protection, and community wealth issue.
Across the United States, data center growth is colliding with constrained substations, multi-year interconnection backlogs, transformer shortages, land-use conflicts, and rising concerns that infrastructure costs may be shifted onto residential ratepayers. VTCNZE's proposed model is designed to address that bottleneck by creating a repeatable pathway for rapidly deployable, high-density storage assets that can support critical load centers while reducing grid stress. 'The limiting factor is speed,' Davis said. 'America cannot wait four years for a conventional substation review while AI infrastructure, semiconductor strategy, quantum computing, and national security systems are all racing ahead.'
The proposed framework would allow federal, state, and municipal entities to participate in qualified infrastructure projects through minority, non-controlling equity positions or comparable economic participation rights. These public positions would be tied to the value each level of government contributes. Under the conceptual model, the federal government could contribute national priority designation, financing access, and permitting coordination; state governments could contribute statutory clean-grid authority and infrastructure bank liquidity; and municipal governments could contribute brownfield access and local permitting acceleration. Private investors and infrastructure partners would contribute project capital and engineering execution. 'No taxpayer acceleration without taxpayer upside,' VTCNZE asserts.
VTCNZE's framework centers on high-density vertical energy storage structures, or 'Vertical Stacks,' designed to compress large-scale storage capacity into smaller urban or industrial footprints. The model is intended to support load-adjacent deployment near data centers, AI campuses, industrial corridors, grid-constrained substations, and brownfield redevelopment zones. By building upward rather than outward, the model seeks to reduce land demand, shorten project siting timelines, and enable repeatable manufacturing. VTCNZE's working national deployment target is approximately 600 GWh of distributed grid storage across major U.S. data center and industrial corridors within approximately 48 months, subject to engineering validation and site-specific approvals.
A central component of the proposal is what VTCNZE calls the 'WIMBY Factor' (Welcome In My Backyard), which ensures communities are protected from unfair costs and included in the upside. Under the proposed model, qualifying AI and energy infrastructure projects should not pass avoidable grid upgrade costs onto residential ratepayers. Instead, projects receiving public acceleration should include mechanisms for direct local benefit, such as municipal equity participation, local revenue sharing, and workforce pathways. 'Behind-the-meter cannot mean behind-the-community,' Davis said.
VTCNZE believes the CHIPS and Science Act precedent is critical. The recent use of taxpayer equity participation in quantum-related incentives recognizes that public support should be paired with public value. VTCNZE argues that energy infrastructure now belongs in the same category. 'Chips require fabs. Fabs require power. AI requires data centers. Data centers require storage, transformers, substations, and resilient electricity,' Davis said. 'The next layer of American industrial policy is power.'
VTCNZE's Speed-to-Power framework proposes that federal, state, and municipal leaders evaluate actions such as creating an expedited pathway for load-adjacent energy storage assets, granting priority review to high-density storage projects using safe, thermally stable, non-lithium chemistries, prioritizing brownfield and public land for deployment, and allowing public entities to receive minority equity stakes when public authority accelerates a project. The company also calls for protecting residential ratepayers from avoidable cost-shifting and encouraging structured Special Purpose Vehicles that align stakeholders.
VTCNZE believes the United States has an opportunity to transform the AI power crisis into a new public-private infrastructure model. 'This is not just a clean energy proposal,' Davis said. 'It is an AI strategy, a national security strategy, a ratepayer protection strategy, an industrial policy strategy, and a community wealth strategy. Power to the People is no longer just a slogan. It is an infrastructure finance model.'
Related Link: https://verticalstack.energy
