This is very cool. Google has awarded a million dollars in grants, and is offering $10 million more, to those supporting and developing plug-in hybrid cars that are not only more fuel efficient, but can plug into the grid and sell power back to it during peak hours. Granted, it's only a few million dollars, but it seems like Google's just getting its feet wet here -- hopefully we'll see more initiatives, and more private funds, from them in the future.

The article points out that it may seem strange for Google to be getting into the energy/car business, but rightly points out that the replacement for fossil fuels will likely be a hodgepodge of alternative energies, and all that power (and information about that power) is going to need to be managed. And that's where Google comes in: they're all about managing and organizing information.