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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.

5/5

venture judge

11

similar startups, last 2 years (68 all-time)

96%

of 4 nearest real companies still alive

yes

8 matching federal grants and programs

Direction supported by government programs and grants

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.

72

Idea Score, 0-100 · raw 44.1 x 1.64

Crowded

competition: more crowded than 75% of ideas · headwind x0.63

+2.6

government priorities, secondary (13 matching grants)

Trend

76

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 sector68
  • 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): 68 all-time, 11 from the last two years. Same matching as Idea Check.

  • OneShopyc S21 · 2021 · Commerce and marketplacessite down

    List on multiple resale marketplaces

  • Aleph Solutions (Alephee)yc S21 · 2021 · Commerce and marketplacesalive

    We help automotive aftermarket brands to supply and sell parts online

  • Auctomaticyc W07 · 2007 · Commerce and marketplacesacquired
  • MonoRevoplugandplay · Commerce and marketplacesalive

    A procurement platform for small-lot parts and management SaaS for small-lot manufacturing sites

  • SkySelect (DeltaBid)plugandplay · Commerce and marketplacesalive

    SkySelect (old name: DeltaBid) is a marketplace for aircraft spare parts.

  • 株式会社Waquaplugandplay · Climate and energyalive

    Waqua Co offers manufacturing and sales of water treatment equipment and IT services.

  • Stuphplugandplay · Commerce and marketplacesunchecked

    eBay meets gig economy.

  • Osseusyc S26 · 2026 · Robotics and physical worldalive

    The intelligent development platform for robotics

  • Dentayc S26 · 2026 · Fintechalive

    Dental Insurance

  • Synphonyyc X26 · 2026 · Robotics and physical worldalive

    robots & software for farms

  • SellRazeyc F25 · 2025 · Consumeralive

    The fastest way to sell online.

  • Proxyc F25 · 2025 · Vertical AI agentsalive

    AI technical support for complex physical products

Run this as an Idea Check →

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

180

startup-relevant grants in Climate and energy

$155M

awarded in the sector, tracked

19

opportunities open now in the sector

All public money by sector →

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 · 92 → 112 → 184 → 97 → 32 new companies 2022 → 2026 · 91% aliveYC S26: 2 in this cluster, 1% of the batch (was 1% in X26) (F26 is still forming: 21 listed)Since February, of 118 YC companies here: 0 acquired, 2 shut down, 4 rewrote their pitch

Climate and energy: companies, trend and grants →

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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Swipe ideas like this in the deckTalk to the radar about it

Fictional company written 2026-08-23 from MarkosWeb data; the companies, grants and numbers around it are real and tracked. Treat the idea as a research prompt, not a plan.