VIASPACE & Tibbar Report Progress on Giant King Grass Biogas Power Plant on St. Croix-- Caribbean's First Continuously Renewable, Green Energy, Biomass Power Plant

WALNUT, Calif., March 3, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- VIASPACE Inc. (OTCQB: VSPC) provided an update on the 7 MW Giant King Grass fueled anaerobic digestion power plant being developed by Tibbar Energy USVI, LLC on St. Croix, US Virgin Islands.

Tibbar Energy presented their 7MW Biogas Project at a CZM (Coastal Zone Management) Public Hearing on February 27^th requesting a CZM permit. The presentation was made by CEO Ms. Tania Tomyn who reported, "The public support was overwhelming from local residents and businesses.  The island of St. Croix is about to see the first project of its kind with Tibbar's anaerobic digestion facility. We will produce lower cost, clean renewable power, create jobs, and develop a local organic fertilizer source that will be offered to local farmers.  We will develop a 1,600 acre energy crop farming operation on the island using mainly Giant King Grass and some native local grasses, and we will use a treated effluent stream from Virgin Islands Waste Management Authority that is currently secondarily treated and discharged to the ocean for irrigation on half of our farms."

Tomyn continued, "Tibbar will also donate 1,000 round bales of hay to the Department of Agriculture for small farmer's livestock. Giant King Grass has grown extremely well on the island of St. Croix since we planted the first nursery 19 months ago."

The CZM Committee has 30 days to approve Tibbar's permit application.  Tibbar has all other permits, including Air, Earth Change, Pipelines, and Electrical duct, submitted, deemed complete and working through the process.  Last July 2013, Tibbar executed with WAPA (the local Government owned utility) a 25 year Power Purchase Agreement with 5 year option for $0.245/kwh and at the same time executed an interconnection agreement. The entire project is carbon neutral and will be the first fossil fuel independent base load power project on St. Croix.

"In addition to Tibbar's power production, we have added to our design a process that will allow Tibbar to produce hundreds of tons of quality organic fertilizer a year," Ms. Tomyn said. "After our crops receive what they need and we have given all the fertilizer we can away to small farmers on the island of St. Croix, we will have an excess that we will export. It's a win-win with a perfect harmony of environmental and economic benefits" 

VIASPACE CEO Dr. Carl Kukkonen stated, "We congratulate Tibbar on their progress, and we fully support their activities. Last year, Professor Mary Nikola from the Rutgers University School of Environmental and Biological Sciences contacted me about a potential field trip for her class to visit the renewable energy project in St. Croix. Tibbar agreed and the class visited in January."

VIASPACE Board Chairman, Dr. Kevin Schewe, also commented, "We are very excited about Tibbar's continuing progress and show of public and local government support on St. Croix to create base load, 24/7 electricity using Giant King Grass as a continuously renewable biomass platform for anaerobic digestion power production. The byproduct of quality organic fertilizer makes this process an even larger environmental leap ahead of fossil fuel power generation. It is only a matter of time that more tropical islands and island nations (Caribbean and South Pacific) realize the environmental and economic benefits of using Giant King Grass as their continuously renewable, green energy, biomass platform. Finally, our shareholders should be encouraged that our 25-year license fee revenue stream from using Giant King Grass in St. Croix is moving closer toward realization.

Pictures of Giant King Grass in St. Croix, a front page story from the St. Croix Avis newspaper and a picture of the class visit from the New Jersey Farmer newspaper are available on the VIASPACE Facebook page www.facebook.com/viaspaceinc.

About VIASPACE Inc.
VIASPACE grows renewable Giant King^TM Grass as a low-carbon fuel for clean electricity generation; for environmentally friendly energy pellets; and as a feedstock for bio-methane production and for green cellulosic biofuels, biochemicals and biomaterials. Giant King Grass is a proprietary, high yield, dedicated biomass clean energy crop. Giant King Grass when it is cut frequently at 4 to 5 feet tall is also excellent animal feed. The USDA granted approval for planting Giant King Grass throughout the US and cooperates in exporting by performing the required inspections and issuing the phytosanitary certificate needed for import into foreign countries. Giant King Grass is being grown in California, Arizona, Hawaii, St. Croix Virgin Islands, Nicaragua, South Africa, China, Myanmar and Pakistan.  For more information, please go to www.VIASPACE.com or contact Dr. Jan Vandersande, Director of Communications, at 800-517-8050 or [email protected].

Safe Harbor Statement
Information in this news release includes forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements relate to future events or future performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Such factors include, without limitation, risks outlined in our periodic filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2012, and other factors over which VIASPACE has little or no control.

SOURCE VIASPACE Inc.