The Vertical Stack Technology Coalition For Near-Zero Emissions PBC (VTCNZE) today proposed a national 'Speed-to-Power' framework designed to deploy approximately 600 GWh of distributed grid storage within 48 months by adapting the public equity model used in the CHIPS and Science Act 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 Act.
VTCNZE argues that the 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.'
The 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.
VTCNZE argues that the national AI power challenge is an industrial strategy issue, a national security issue, a ratepayer protection issue, and a community wealth issue. The company'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, financing, permitting, supply chain availability, utility coordination, and site-specific approvals.
Under the conceptual model, the federal government could contribute national priority designation, financing access, permitting coordination, and interagency acceleration. State governments could contribute statutory clean-grid authority, infrastructure bank liquidity, and energy-transition policy tools. Municipal governments could contribute brownfield access, land easements, local permitting acceleration, and community integration. Private investors and infrastructure partners would contribute project capital, engineering execution, and manufacturing scale. Public partners would not merely subsidize strategic infrastructure but share in the long-term value created by accelerating it.
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, enable repeatable manufacturing, and bring storage closer to the load centers that need it most.
A central component of the proposal is the 'WIMBY Factor' — Welcome In My Backyard. Communities are more likely to support critical infrastructure when 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, workforce pathways, and community benefit pools.
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.'
For more information, visit Vertical Stack Energy.
