VIASPACE Executives in Talks With Potential Customers and Partners in Europe, India and Asia

IRVINE, Calif., July 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- VIASPACE Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: VSPC), a clean energy company growing Giant King™ Grass as a low-carbon, renewable biomass crop, said that Chief Executive Dr. Carl Kukkonen and VIASPACE Green Energy President Sung Chang are on a trip to Europe, India and Asia to hold talks with potential customers and partners seeking new and more reliable supplies of biomass feedstock for their green energy operations and projects.  

In Europe, including England, the Netherlands and Germany, Kukkonen and Chang met with potential pellet customers, biogas equipment suppliers, biogas electricity generators and potential partners for power plants and pellet mill projects. Discussions included Giant King Grass cultivation projects in Europe and Africa.

In India, where the demand for clean electricity is rapidly growing, talks were held in five cities where companies that own biomass power plants need a dedicated energy crop for fuel due to issues with current sources of biomass, and companies that sell biomass pellets and briquettes needed reliable supplies of feedstock. Kukkonen and Chang also met with a high-temperature gasification company that uses biomass to manufacture producer gas for industrial process heat. Due to its fast-growth, high yield, ability to grow on marginal land, and scalability to accommodate large projects, Giant King Grass is of significant interest to the biomass market in India.

In Singapore, Kukkonen and Chang discussed how Giant King Grass biomass projects can solve supply problems with other types of biomass now being used to generate electricity and produce pellets in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. Thailand has many biomass power plants that use sugarcane waste and therefore have to shut down for a substantial portion of the year, because sugarcane waste is seasonal. Biogas projects are also important in Thailand, and consistent supply sources are needed. In Malaysia, new biomass power plants are being developed that use agricultural waste from oil palm production, but additional feedstocks will be needed.

On July 21 and 22, Kukkonen and Chang will visit the VIASPACE Giant King Grass plantation and Green Log factory in Guangdong province and take potential customers on a tour.

Kukkonen commented: "Our presentations of Giant King Grass and its potential have generated tremendous interest and positive responses from a host of biomass energy producers and suppliers. Numerous companies have invested heavily in large plantations of Jatropha for biodiesel, but these investments have not yet produced good results. As a result, many of these companies are looking for alternative uses of their land, including a more efficient biomass crop, and Giant King Grass can provide the solution.

"The major advantage of Giant King Grass is that is it can be harvested during the first 12 months after planting, whereas Jatropha and other crops may take two to four years to mature before the first harvest," Kukkonen continued. "In addition, we believe that Giant King Grass cultivated as a dedicated energy crop can provide a reliable supply of fuel and feedstock at a price that is less expensive than agricultural waste or coal.

"Many energy projects depend on agricultural waste as fuel for their boilers and feedstock for their biogas systems, but due to inadequate supply and seasonality, agricultural waste has become very expensive," Kukkonen added. "Also due to seasonality, there are significant periods of each year where power plants can't produce electricity and have to shut down, because they have no fuel. With that in mind, and considering how Giant King Grass can effectively address other issues as well, we feel the potential of Giant King Grass in the biomass energy market is substantial, and the interest we are seeing is quite promising."

About VIASPACE Inc.

VIASPACE is a clean energy company providing products and technology for renewable and alternative energy that reduce or eliminate dependence on fossil and high-pollutant energy sources. Through its majority-owned subsidiary VIASPACE Green Energy Inc., the Company grows Giant King Grass as a low carbon fuel for electricity generating power plants, as a feedstock for bio methane production and cellulosic biofuels, and for other low-carbon, renewable energy products.  VIASPACE recently introduced its Green Log(TM) fireplace and campfire log product. 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 any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements 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, 2009, as well as general economic and business conditions; the ability to acquire and develop specific products and technologies; changes in consumer and business demand for the Company's products; competition from larger companies; changes in demand for alternative and clean energy; risks associated with international transactions; risks related to technological change; and other factors over which VIASPACE has little or no control.

SOURCE VIASPACE Inc.