Earth2Tech Week In Review

PHOTOS: The Best Electric & Hybrid Cars From the Frankfurt Motor Show: For a cross section of the electric and hybrid vehicles that automakers have either in the pipeline for production or on deck for conceptual development in the next few years, you couldn’t beat Frankfurt, Germany last week.

IBM Launches Software to Act as Smart Grid Glue for Startups: IBM detailed a bit more about how it’s acting as a sort of glue between utilities and third-party smart grid vendors, with the announcement of new software called “Solution Architecture for Energy and Utilities Framework (SAFE).”

Ray Lane: Fisker to Make Major Announcement About $39K Plug-In Hybrid: Kleiner Perkins investor, and former President of Oracle, Ray Lane, said that electric vehicle maker startup Fisker is gearing up to make a major announcement about a $39,000 plug-in hybrid vehicle later this week or next week.

Tesla Motors Raises $82.5M Series F, Charges Up for Global Buildout:Electric car startup Tesla Motors, which just snagged a $465 million loan from the Department of Energy, has done it again — raised capital, that is. The San Carlos, Calif.-based company has pulled in $82.5 million in a sixth round of private equity financing, according to a Bloomberg report from the Frankfurt Motor Show.

Does Fiber Have a Role in the Smart Grid? A Tennessee Utility Thinks So: One of the more unique smart grid projects we’ve heard about comes courtesy of a fiber-optic network in the little town of Chattanooga in Tennessee. Municipal utility and communications company EPB is in the process of building out a $200 million fiber network for the city’s residents that will offer Internet, phone, video and — in an unusual twist — smart grid services.

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