New startup ideas · Physical world · Climate and energy
startup idea
Ampsite
Marketplace where industrial sites sell spare grid capacity to data center developers.
Ampsite lists industrial and brownfield sites in the US that already hold energized interconnection capacity they no longer use, scores each one for real deliverable megawatts using utility queue data, feeder models and on-site meter history, and matches them to colocation and AI compute developers hunting for power.
- Marketplace
- Enterprise
- $10-100B market
- Creates a new category
- US first
5/5
venture judge
7
similar startups, last 2 years (66 all-time)
96%
of 4 nearest real companies still alive
yes
8 matching federal grants and programs
Direction supported by government programs and grants
Test it before you build it
$1,600 · 4 weeks · 20 prospects
For $1,600 and four weeks, prove that data center developers who lost sites to power delays will pay up front for exclusive access to verified industrial-site capacity in PJM, instead of mining public queue data and calling site owners themselves.
Riskiest assumption · A developer who lost a site to a power delay will pay Ampsite up front and accept a contractual fee obligation for exclusive access to verified energized capacity, instead of mining the same public queue data and calling the site owners directly.
1Focus group: who and where
The VP of site acquisition or development at a mid-size data center developer with a 10-200 MW pipeline (not a hyperscaler), who lost or slipped a site in the last 12 months because the utility could not deliver power on the developer's schedule.
where to find 20 · 7x24 Exchange regional chapter meetings (the DC, Carolinas and New York Metro chapters meet monthly and draw exactly these buyers), the Data Center Map and Baxtel directories of active US developers filtered to PJM states, and warm introductions from investors and brokers who work data center land deals in Northern Virginia and Ohio.
2Sell first, build later
A 60-day exclusive first-look on ten verified PJM industrial sites with 5-50 MW of energized idle capacity, each scored from queue data, feeder position and meter history, delivered as full dossiers with a direct introduction to the site owner under an access agreement - first dossiers within 21 days of payment.
the ask · $2,500 refundable reservation per developer, credited against a $25,000 technology fee at signature of any site deal sourced through the list.
a real yes · A real yes is $2,500 moved by wire or card plus a signed access agreement with the fee clause intact; compliments, requests to see the list before paying, and unpaid NDAs are not yes.
3Small experiments
The first one attacks the riskiest assumption; each ends with a number that says whether to run the next.
1. Paid first-look on ten sites
$700 · 14 days
Pull the PJM interconnection queue, the withdrawn-project list and utility large-load retirement filings to build a teaser sheet of ten industrial sites with 5-50 MW of energized but idle capacity, anonymized to county and megawatts. Book 15 calls with developers through 7x24 chapters and warm intros, walk through two anonymized sites, and offer a 60-day exclusive first-look on the full verified list for a $2,500 refundable reservation. One founder runs every call.
keep going if · 3 of 15 developers pay the $2,500 reservation on or within 48 hours of the call
2. Thirty exclusive listing calls
$400 · 14 days
Cold-call 30 industrial site owners from the withdrawn-queue and retired-load lists - plant managers at steel, paper and cold storage operations and the REITs holding shuttered plants - and ask each to sign a one-page 90-day exclusive listing letter giving Ampsite the sole right to market their idle interconnection capacity. The letter is ready for DocuSign on the call.
keep going if · 5 of 30 site owners sign the 90-day exclusive listing letter
3. Disintermediation probe
$500 · 14 days
For each developer who paid, reveal one listed site only under an access agreement that carries a 12-month fee obligation if they close on that site through any channel. Watch whether they sign it intact or strike the fee clause; this is the stated kill risk tested on a live deal.
keep going if · 3 of 3 paying developers sign the access agreement with the fee clause intact
4Collect a deposit up front
Tesla took $1,000 refundable reservations for the Model 3 and $100 for the Cybertruck before building either: the deposit is the measurement, not the revenue.
$2,500
per prospect, refundable
how · A $2,500 refundable reservation invoiced to the developer entity right after the call, chosen because a paid first-look queue position is a familiar purchase for site acquisition teams and small enough to clear without procurement; the VP signs the one-page access agreement and finance pays the invoice. set up: Stripe Invoicing ↗
what it reserves · One of five slots in the first-look cohort, 60 days of exclusivity on the ten-site list before anyone else sees it, and a locked $25,000 technology fee for deals closed in 2026.
refund · Refunded in full within 5 business days on request, any time before the developer opens their first site dossier.
target · 3 paid reservations from 15 developer calls within 28 days
before taking money · Charging fees tied to the sale or lease of real property can trigger state real estate brokerage licensing, so keep the charge framed as a technology and data fee and have counsel review before the first paid deal closes.
Go: build it if
3 or more of 15 developers pay $2,500, 5 or more of 30 site owners sign exclusive listings, and no payer strikes the fee clause: build the scoring product in that ISO.
Kill: stop if
Fewer than 2 developers pay after 15 calls, or fewer than 3 site owners sign after 30 calls, or every paying developer strikes the fee clause: stop, the take rate does not survive contact with a real deal.
5 Scripts to run itoutreach message, landing copy, deposit terms · click to open
outreach message
You have probably lost or slipped a site in the past year because the power was not there when you needed it - most PJM development teams have. I have verified ten industrial sites holding 5 to 50 MW of energized, idle interconnection capacity, scored from queue data and meter history, and I am giving five developers a 60-day exclusive first look before anyone else sees them. Can I take 20 minutes this week to walk you through two of them, anonymized?
landing page
Ten PJM sites with energized capacity, verified, exclusive for 60 days $2,500 refundable reservation, credited against a $25,000 fee at signature, holds one of five first-look slots Reserve your slot - first dossiers within 21 days
deposit terms
Your $2,500 reservation holds one of five first-look slots on ten verified PJM sites and locks a $25,000 technology fee for any 2026 deal sourced through the list. First dossiers arrive within 21 days, and your 60-day exclusivity starts the day you open them. Fully refundable on request within 5 business days, any time before you open your first dossier.
Would you run this test?
One tap. The yes-share feeds the Demand pillar of this idea's score; nobody sees who answered.
Budgets are out-of-pocket estimates for a team of one to three, US market. Size the deposit to the deal, and check the terms before taking money in a regulated line.
Scorecard
One score that balances how trendy the idea is, the demand for it and its potential for 100x, with competition measured relative to every other idea in the catalog. Recent startup trends first, government priorities second.
70
Idea Score, 0-100 · raw 43.3 x 1.61
Crowded
competition: more crowded than 75% of ideas · headwind x0.63
+2.6
government priorities, secondary (13 matching grants)
Trend
72
Is the wave forming now? 2025-26 entrants vs 2023-24, rounds since 2025, the sector's live-batch direction, the 2026 trend analyst.
- Entrants 2025-26 vs 2023-24 (similar companies)89
- Rounds announced 2025+ in the sector47
- Rounds announced 2025+ matching the idea98
- Sector direction (live batch)50
- 2026 trend analyst75
Demand
58
Does anyone want it? YC's current RFS, companies already paid for something similar, the operator judge, founders' yes-rate in decks, readers who would run the test.
- YC asks for it (current RFS: idea / sector)0
- Someone already pays (similar companies, recent / all-time)100
- Operator judge: real pain75
100x potential
65
Can it return a fund? The venture judge (double weight), market-size and moat axes, neighbours still alive, the technologist judge.
- Venture judge100
- Market size axis67
- Moat axis80
- Neighbours still alive19
- Technologist judge25
Score = 100 x cbrt(Trend x Demand x 100x) x (1 - 0.5 x crowding) + government bonus (max 5), calibrated so the 95th-percentile idea scores 90 (order never changes). A geometric mean: a weak pillar cannot be papered over. Percentiles are among the 272 ideas in the catalog; the terms matched were marketplace, industrial, sites, sell, spare, grid, capacity, lists.
The idea in full
- What
- Ampsite lists industrial and brownfield sites in the US that already hold energized interconnection capacity they no longer use, scores each one for real deliverable megawatts using utility queue data, feeder models and on-site meter history, and matches them to colocation and AI compute developers hunting for power. Sellers are steel mills, paper plants, cold storage operators and REITs; buyers are enterprise data center developers who pay a technology fee at signature plus an annual data subscription. Ampsite never takes title, never buys power and never signs as broker of record, so the software stays capital-light at software margins.
- Why now
- Three of the cluster's most recent accelerator entries point at the same shortage: NODI Energy (yc X25) sells distributed infrastructure to unlock grid power for data centers, Voxel Energy (yc W26) builds energy independent data centers, and Condor Energy (yc W26) sells enterprise energy procurement software. The radar also shows no crowded phrase repeating across 4+ recent companies, so the transaction layer itself is unclaimed while 42 companies entered the cluster in the last two years.
- Wedge: first customer and entry point
- One founder works a single ISO territory: pull the interconnection queue and withdrawn-project list, cold-call the 200 industrial sites with retired load, sign 20 exclusive listings, then sell that inventory to a handful of developers who already lost a site to a power delay.
- Path to 100x
- US data center site and power procurement is a $10-100B annual flow, and the party that holds exclusive listings on energized capacity becomes the default first call for every developer, which is a distribution moat that compounds as each closed deal adds verified feeder data no competitor has. A new category is born because capacity today is traded through brokers and rumor, not a priced marketplace, and the first venue to publish clearing prices sets the reference.
- Ceiling
- If hyperscalers standardize on their own land teams and utilities publish hosting capacity maps openly, the matching layer degrades into a low-margin data subscription.
- Closest real companies, as the generator saw them
- Condor Energy sells procurement software to a single enterprise buyer rather than clearing a two-sided market; NODI Energy and Voxel Energy build the physical infrastructure and so carry the capital, while Ampsite only routes deals. Astro develops projects with AI instead of matching existing capacity to buyers.
- Main risk
- Site owners and developers meet once through Ampsite and then transact directly, leaving the platform with a broken take rate.
Five judges
Each judge scores every idea in the catalog with a named rubric; the venture judge decides whether a card is shown at all (4-5 is venture-grade).
Venture investor
5/5
Capital-light two-sided venue on energized interconnection capacity, exclusive listings compounding into verified feeder data, timed exactly to the AI compute power crunch.
Bootstrapper
4/5
Capital-light listings business one founder can work in a single ISO territory, selling to developers already losing deals to power delays.
Operator
4/5
Data center developers who already lost a site to a power delay have budget and urgency, though direct transacting threatens the take rate.
Technologist
2/5
Scoring public interconnection queue data is spreadsheet work, and utilities publishing hosting capacity maps erases the wedge in one release.
Risk
2/5
Unregulated matching with no broker of record means the stated disintermediation risk, sellers and developers transacting directly after one intro, has no legal brake.
trends
4/5
Rides the AI compute power crunch the brief shows accelerating - AI infra doubled from 4% to 8% of the S26 batch - with the transaction layer still unclaimed.
Similar startups in the directory
Companies whose pitch matches most of the idea's terms (marketplace, industrial, sites, sell, spare, grid, capacity, lists): 66 all-time, 7 from the last two years. Same matching as Idea Check.
We help automotive aftermarket brands to supply and sell parts online
List on multiple resale marketplaces
A procurement platform for small-lot parts and management SaaS for small-lot manufacturing sites
eBay meets gig economy.
SkySelect (old name: DeltaBid) is a marketplace for aircraft spare parts.
Waqua Co offers manufacturing and sales of water treatment equipment and IT services.
robots & software for farms
The fastest way to sell online.
AI-optimized ticket resale
Ethosphere’s Voice AI analyses in-person store interactions to drive deep, actionable insights into the hands of frontline retail associates, managers and brand leaders
TROES is a Canadian company specializing in smart power energy storage technologies, products and solutions in a $170B market. We are an asset light tech company with systems powered by proprietary hardware & software tech which have been certified, commercialized and deployed globally.
The generator's reference companies
Real companies the model named as closest when it wrote the card, with their fate. A check mark is a company the radar could verify in its directory.
Public money in this direction
US federal grants, SBIR/STTR awards and open opportunities from the radar's public-money feed, matched to the idea's terms; the sector totals give the context.
8
grants and programs matching the idea
203
startup-relevant grants in Climate and energy
$167M
awarded in the sector, tracked
13
opportunities open now in the sector
- SBIR Phase II: Understanding the Lifetime of Perovskite/Silicon Tandems for Vehicle-Integrated Photovoltaic and Residential Applicationsawardhigh relevance
National Science Foundation · SBIR Phase II · $1M · posted 2026-08-24
- I-Corps: Translation potential of a compact power generation system based on rotating detonation combustion integrated with a turbine generatorawardhigh relevance
National Science Foundation · I-Corps · $50K · posted 2026-08-10
- I-Corps: Translation potential of engineered microbes to extract critical metals from ultramafic mine wasteawardhigh relevance
National Science Foundation · I-Corps · $50K · posted 2026-08-04
- EPSCoR Research Fellowship Program (EGFP): Enhancing Research Excellence in the Ocean State at the University of Rhode Islandawardmedium relevance
National Science Foundation · EGF-EPSCoR Graduate Fellowship · $954K · posted 2026-09-08
- Planning: E-RISE: Future Autonomous Manufacturing Ecosystem of Alabama (FAME-AL)awardmedium relevance
National Science Foundation · EPSCoR RII: E-RISE · $100K · posted 2026-08-20
- I-Corps: Translation potential of a carrier-free verteporfin nanoparticle formulation for cancer, dermatology, and ophthalmology therapeuticsawardmedium relevance
National Science Foundation · I-Corps · $50K · posted 2026-08-19
- Excellence in Research: Harnessing Data Science to Quantitatively Predict the Partitioning Behavior of Per and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS)awardmedium relevance
National Science Foundation · HBCU-EiR - HBCU-Excellence in · $675K · posted 2026-08-18
- Collaborative Research: Enhancing Stochastic Supply Chains via Cascading Simulation and Adjustable Optimizationawardmedium relevance
National Science Foundation · OE Operations Engineering · $316K · posted 2026-08-17
Market signal
What the radar sees in Climate and energy: new companies by cohort year, the forming YC batch, and outcomes since the February snapshot.
Climate and energy · 99 → 115 → 200 → 90 → 45 new companies 2022 → 2026 · 89% aliveYC F26 live: 1 in this cluster, 1% of the batch (was 1% in S26)Since February, of 118 YC companies here: 1 acquired, 2 shut down, 9 rewrote their pitch
Design attributes
The card is one cell of a designed set: every axis below was chosen before the text was written, and the text had to realize it.
- Buyer
- Enterprise
- Business model
- Marketplace
- Path to 100x
- Creates a new category
- Market size
- $10-100B market
- Capital intensity
- Capital-light (software margins)
- Speed to revenue
- Revenue in 1-3 years
- Technical depth
- Real engineering
- Go-to-market
- Founder-led sales
- Moat
- Distribution moat
- Geography
- US first
- Regulation
- Unregulated
- Vibe
- Hot space
Listed under
An idea sits in its own sector and in any sector its text clearly touches.
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