The Week in CleanTech, Pt. 2: Forbes theorizes the Russia/Georgia war is about energy. And GM puts the final touches on its Chevy Volt electric roadster.

Georgia On Our Minds: An op-ed article by Dan Fisher in Wednesday’s Forbes paints this week’s conflict in the Caucasus region as a straightforward energy war. Fisher asserts that Vladimir Putin’s primary aim in the affair was to rule out Georgia as a safe transit point for shipping oil from the region beyond Russia’s reach. Fighting quickly shut down the Baku-Sipsa pipeline, which moves oil from Azerbaijan to the Georgian port of Sipsa. Now in doubt: the massive Nabucco pipeline, a $10 billion project which would have brought non-Russian natural gas to Europe via Turkey. (Forbes)

GM to finish electric car design by mid-September: General Motors says it’s down to the fine details now, and plans to finalize the design of its highly anticipated Chevy Volt plug-in vehicle in the next 30 days. Bob Boniface, GM director of design for the Volt, says prototypes with production-ready parts will be ready for road testing in the next ten days. Meanwhile, Boniface gave attendees at a Michigan auto conference a look at sketches of the Volt’s expected sheet metal. GM also continued their marketing strip tease, releasing a pair of sharply cropped images depicting the Volt’s final shape on the GM Volt fan blog. (Reuters)

As gasoline prices drop, interest in smaller cars falls off: How quickly we forget. As gasoline prices slowly cool, so is public interest in smaller vehicles. A gallon of gas still costs a dollar more than this time last year, but auto industry analysts Edmunds.com says consumer interest is already switching from small vehicles to compact crossover SUVs. Sales of hybrids crashed at the end of 2007, when gasoline was selling below $3 per gallon. Still, Ford and GM report they believe car buyer habits are changing for good. SUV sales are down 16 percent so far this year, while trucks are off by almost a quarter. (USA Today)

PG&E Signs Massive 800 MW PV Solar Deals With OptiSolar, SunPower: Pacific Gas & Electric has signed another huge solar deal. The new project will eventually add a whopping 800 megawatts of photovoltaic power to the utility’s clean energy portfolio. The primary beneficiary will be OptiSolar, which is preparing to construct a 500 MW plant fpr the project. It’s evidence that utility scale photovoltaic power is coming of age. (Earth2Tech)

Daimler Launches Europe’s Largest Fleet Test of Hybrid Trucks: Germany’s Daimler motors has begun delivering a new line of hybrid delivery trucks to eight European customers. The project kickoff begins with ten of Dailmer’s new Fuso Canter Eco Hybrids. The 7.5 ton diesel-electric vehicles are said to consume about 15% less fuel than similarly equipped conventional trucks, with a corresponding decrease on carbon dioxide emissions. Tesco, DHL, and TNT are among the companies which will test the new vehicles’ roadability, economy, and maintenance needs. (Green Car Congress)

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