IRVINE, Calif.,July 6, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- [ VIASPACE Inc. ] (OTC Bulletin Board: [ VSPC ] - News), a clean energy company growing Giant King™ Grass as a low-carbon, renewable biomass crop and its subsidiary VIASPACE Green Energy Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: [ VGREF ]), today provided comments on the strategic position paper, "Pellets Are Coming to Asia" written by Poyry Management Consulting. Poyry, based in Finland, is a global consulting and engineering company with an extensive energy business.

The Poyry paper synopsis states "Pellets are a fast track to boost renewable energy production and reduce CO2 emissions. These desired features are expected to escalate the global pellet market from 16 million tonnes (2010) to 46 million tonnes by 2020. Europe has become an established, yet growing, pellet market but Asia is expected to kickstart in 2012 with the introduction of the renewable portfolio standard in Korea."

The paper continues "biomass is the only renewable energy source that is tradable and as policy incentives are getting stronger and biomass markets are growing. Cofiring of biomass with coal represents a big potential and a "low hanging fruit" for increasing the use of renewable energy. If even a small fraction of the global coal-based electricity generation was replaced by biomass, this would represent a very large demand growth… Both Korea and Japan have promising policies in the pipeline and these are expected to drive pellet consumption… Neither Japan nor Korea has the domestic resources to meet the expected pellet demand."

Poyry states that increasing incentives are expected to make the pellet market grow at 11% annually to 46 million tonnes in 2020 representing almost $8 billion (at $174/tonne). The position paper was written for CMT--Centre for Management Technology, and will be presented at the 2nd Biomass Pellets Trade Asia Conference to be held in Seoul Korea on September 7-8, 2011. The paper is available for download at [ http://www.cmtevents.com/eventposts.aspx?feedid=1218&ev=110917& ]

VIASPACE CEO Dr. Carl Kukkonen comments, "The Poyry paper reports that Europe will have a pellet shortfall of 2.15 million tonnes of pellets in 2015 and Asia will have a shortfall of 1.35 million tonnes. The VIASPACE/General Biofuels joint venture that we have in place to produce Giant King Grass pellets in the Dominican Republic is addressing the European market, and we are getting a lot of serious interest here. VIASPACE is also pursuing projects in China and Southeast Asia to supply pellet markets in Japan and Korea, as well as the domestic Chinese market."

Kukkonen continued, "The vast majority of pellets sold today are made from sawdust and other wood waste from the lumber and pulp and paper industries. The demand for pellets is outstripping the supply of wood waste. Giant King Grass is a dedicated energy crop that offers a sustainably grown alternative. Due to its high yield, we expect that we will be able to deliver sustainably grown Giant King Grass energy pellets at a lower cost than wood waste pellets. Because Giant King Grass can be harvested 6 1/2 months after planting, we can rapidly serve the pellet marketplace. A new planting of trees takes between 4 and 20 years to harvest so the speed of growth and high yield of Giant King Grass are major competitive advantages."

As was previously announced, Giant King Grass has been pelletized and samples have been provided to potential customers. The Giant King Grass pellets are 7 millimeters in diameter with lengths between 17 and 45 millimeters. The physical quality is excellent. The pellets were tested by well-known SGS North America Inc., Mineral Services Division which determined the gross calorific value of Giant King Grass pellets to be 7724 BTU/dry lb which is equal to 18.0 GJ/ dry kilogram or 4300 kcal/kilogram. Pictures of the Giant King Grass pellets can be found at [ www.VIASPACE.com ] and [ www.VIASPACEGreenEnergy.com ].

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 such as ethanol and butanol, and for biochemicals and bioplastics. For more information, please go to [ www.VIASPACE.com ] or [ www.VIASPACEGreenEnergy.com ] or contact Dr. Jan Vandersande, Director of Communications, at 800-517-8050 or [ IR@VIASPACE.com. ]

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, 2010, 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.

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Comments on "Pellets Are Coming to Asia"-- A Strategic Position Paper Written by Poyry Management Consulting