WALNUT, Calif., Jan. 20, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- VIASPACE Inc.
(OTC: VSPC) today reported that its customer, Tibbar Energy USVI,
states that:
- Required permits will be in place by February 2015.
- Giant KingTM Grass from its nurseries on St. Croix
is ready for the production fields.
- Construction is scheduled to begin in second quarter of
2015.
The 7-megawatt anaerobic digestion biogas power plant will
provide the only base load renewable electricity in the USVI. The
majority feedstock is VIASPACE Giant King Grass. Tibbar will sell
power for 25 years with an additional 5 year option to USVI Water
and Power Authority (WAPA).
Tania Tomyn, Tibbar Energy CEO,
stated, "We will have all of our pre-development permits in place.
It's been a long and busy three years of hard work developing the
farms, the engineering for the biogas plant and working with so
many great suppliers and advisers around the world, and the
different agencies of the US Virgin Islands government--we would
not be here without them. Now the fun part starts when we
actualize and begin construction. The Giant King Grass nurseries
are ready to be transplanted to the new farms once cleared and
irrigation is installed. The project should start construction
second quarter of 2015. Our agriculture team likes the results from
the Giant King Grass that has been growing on the island for over
two years now and they see how well it fits in the US Virgin
Islands as a tropical perennial grass for energy
production."
Tomyn continued, "Our project is a balance of agriculture and
power production and is all carbon neutral. The Tibbar project is a
very significant job creator and clean energy production project
that will tremendously benefit the people of the US Virgin
Islands. In addition, we will also be a major water
reclamation project for the USVI. Our agricultural irrigation
comes from a secondarily treated effluent that is currently being
discharged to the ocean. Now this water can be reused for
non-food crops, as the EPA recommends. We recover water that would
be lost, reduce power bills by 4 to 5% to the Virgin Islander
ratepayers and create a lot of jobs. This is where energy
sector should be."
VIASPACE Chairman, Dr. Kevin
Schewe, commented, "VIASPACE and our partner, Tibbar Energy,
have mutually shared a vision to construct and implement the
Caribbean's first carbon neutral,
base load, green/renewable electric power plant on the island of
St. Croix. We have been pursuing this vision at a time of
unprecedented global warming, with 2014 being documented as the
warmest year of global record keeping. Using continuously renewable
and high-yielding Giant King Grass to create electricity through an
anaerobic digestion biogas power plant is a green energy answer and
solution to realistically reducing continued high carbon emissions
from burning fossil fuels."
Dr. Schewe concluded, "We are proud of the progress that Tibbar
Energy has made on St. Croix. We believe that the successful
implementation of this project will be widely recognized as
establishing green, renewable energy leadership in the Caribbean region and will open many new doors
for similar projects. We hope that it will create a "Caribbean green energy tsunami" that sweeps
the region over the next decade and establishes global leadership
for renewable, carbon-neutral, green energy projects in tropical
and subtropical destinations."
About VIASPACE Inc.
VIASPACE grows renewable Giant
KingTM 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 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, Hawaii, St. Croix Virgin Islands, Nicaragua, South
Africa, China, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines and Guyana. For more
information, please go to www.VIASPACE.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 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, 2013, and
other factors over which VIASPACE has little or no control.
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SOURCE VIASPACE Inc.