Norway

Toronto, Canada's Electrovaya and Mumbai, India's Tata Motors have teamed up on an electric version of Tata's Indica hatchback, which we previously announced would be electrified for the European market within 2009. The car is designed to be a direct competitor to traditional internal-combustion engine models, and will be rolled out in Norway in 2009 and India in 2010.

Software giant Microsoft is not saddled with subprime mortgages, nor is it a bank threatened by a run of angry depositors. Nonetheless, the financial crisis currently roiling Wall Street is being felt in Redmond, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said, and Congress needs to take action.

Ballmer made his comments at a conference in Oslo, Norway, where he announced the formation of new research and development centers for business-oriented search tools. Microsoft recently spent $1.2 billion to purchase Fast Search and Transfer ASA, a Norwegian company that will form the core of the new venture.

Norway is poking around Troll, it’s biggest North Sea oil and gas field, to see if it is a good spot to store CO2. The country is interested in curbing emissions, and are weighing locations for a CCS program. Under the seabed at Sleipner gas field, StatioilHydro has been storing CO2 stripped from their natural gas stream for 12 years. But this new endeavor would lock away emissions from on-shore power plants, which is a horse of a different color.

Looking to beat all other major car companies to the punch, Tata (the largest car company in India) has announced that they'll be selling an all-electric vehicle in Norway in "less than a year."
The car will be based on the Indica (pictured above) which is already on the streets as a gas-powered car in India.

The hype that began with Apple's iPhone 3G launch Friday continued through the weekend and was almost as loud on Monday, with Apple adding to the fire. The company said it sold more than one million iPhone 3Gs and users downloaded more than 10 million applications from its App Store.

Justin E. H. Smith

Justin E. H. Smith