The Vertical Stack Technology Coalition For Near-Zero Emissions PBC (VTCNZE) today announced a proposed national 'Speed-to-Power' framework designed to deploy approximately 600 GWh of distributed grid storage within 48 months, adapting the CHIPS-era public equity model to energy infrastructure. The proposal follows the federal government's recent use of minority equity stakes in technology companies under the CHIPS and Science Act, which VTCNZE argues should now be applied to power infrastructure supporting frontier artificial intelligence, quantum computing, advanced manufacturing, and defense readiness.
'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 framework targets high-density, load-adjacent, non-lithium energy storage assets near major computing and industrial load centers. Instead of sprawling battery farms or lengthy utility interconnection queues, it prioritizes compact, modular, vertically integrated storage structures deployable on urban industrial parcels, brownfields, and underutilized public land. VTCNZE argues the national AI power challenge is an industrial strategy, national security, ratepayer protection, and community wealth issue.
Data center growth across the United States is colliding with constrained substations, multi-year interconnection backlogs, transformer shortages, and land-use conflicts. New power requests are challenging utility planning and threatening American leadership in AI and advanced computing. VTCNZE's model aims to create a repeatable pathway for rapidly deployable, high-density storage assets that reduce 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. We need a new category of infrastructure: accelerated, load-adjacent, high-density storage with public upside built in from day one.'
The proposed framework allows federal, state, and municipal entities to take minority, non-controlling equity positions or comparable economic participation rights in qualified projects. The federal government could contribute national priority designation and permitting coordination; states could contribute clean-grid authority and infrastructure bank liquidity; municipalities could contribute brownfield access and local permitting acceleration. Private investors would contribute project capital and engineering execution. Public partners would share in long-term value, moving beyond traditional grants.
VTCNZE's deployment model centers on high-density vertical energy storage structures, or 'Vertical Stacks,' designed to compress large-scale storage into smaller footprints. By building upward rather than outward, the model reduces land demand, shortens siting timelines, and enables repeatable manufacturing. The target of 600 GWh across major data center corridors within 48 months is achievable if treated as a programmatic manufacturing challenge rather than one-off real estate development, according to VTCNZE.
'Scaling 600 GWh is not about building one mega-project,' Davis said. 'It is about validating a repeatable infrastructure unit, aligning public authority with private capital, and then deploying that unit across the corridors where power constraints are already threatening American technological leadership.'
VTCNZE is calling for immediate cooperation among public-sector authorities, utilities, data center operators, financiers, and manufacturers to evaluate pilot sites. Priority categories include urban industrial brownfields, underutilized municipal land, sites adjacent to high-load data center corridors, and former fossil infrastructure sites. Illinois and the Chicago region are strong candidates due to existing data center demand, industrial land availability, and grid pressure.
A central component is the 'WIMBY Factor' — Welcome In My Backyard — which ensures communities are protected from unfair costs and included in the upside. Projects receiving public acceleration should not pass avoidable grid upgrade costs onto residential ratepayers. Instead, mechanisms like municipal equity participation, local revenue sharing, and community benefit pools would convert infrastructure hosting into long-term community wealth.
'Behind-the-meter cannot mean behind-the-community,' Davis said. 'If a neighborhood is being asked to host the infrastructure of the AI age, that neighborhood should not be treated as an afterthought. It should be treated as a stakeholder.'
VTCNZE argues the CHIPS precedent shows the United States is willing to intervene strategically for national competitiveness. Energy infrastructure now belongs in the same category, as AI data centers, semiconductor fabs, and quantum systems all depend on reliable electricity. 'The next layer of American industrial policy is power,' Davis said.
The framework proposes actions including expedited pathways for load-adjacent storage, priority review for high-density projects using safe chemistries, and allowing public entities to receive equity stakes when their authority accelerates projects. It also calls for protecting residential ratepayers from cost-shifting tied to private AI load growth.
VTCNZE believes the United States can 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.
