WALNUT, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 01/14/13 -- VIASPACE Inc. (OTCQB: VSPC) today announced that its proprietary dedicated energy crop, Giant King™ Grass (GKG), is now growing in Hawaii.

VIASPACE CEO Dr. Carl Kukkonen stated, "Hawaii has the highest electricity rates of any US state because their electricity is mostly generated from expensive imported oil. Hawaii's electric rates range from $.30 - $.40 per kilowatt hour depending on the cost of oil. This is two or three times the cost of electricity on the US mainland. Bioelectricity from Giant King Grass is substantially cheaper than oil generated electricity and has much lower carbon emissions. In addition, the large military presence on Hawaii has requirements for liquid biofuels for aircraft and ships. We believe that Hawaii should be an important part of the VIASPACE US strategy."

Previously, VIASPACE announced that Giant King Grass has been released from quarantine by the US Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) for distribution in the United States. Hawaii, however, has additional plant import rules, and the Giant King Grass is being grown in a facility under the purview of the Hawaii Department of Agriculture.

Dr. Kukkonen personally supervised the planting in Hawaii and met with Department of Agriculture officials as well as with potential Giant King Grass customers in Hawaii. Kukkonen continued, "The climate in Hawaii is ideal for Giant King Grass. There are substantial tracts of land available on different Hawaiian Islands that were previously used to grow sugarcane and pineapple. These are lying fallow now and can be used for energy crop production.

"Giant King Grass can also become an important part of the tourism industry which is crucial for Hawaii's economy. Not only can Giant King Grass provide clean electricity for hotels and resorts, visiting the Giant King Grass plantations and co-located green power plants can become one of the island's tourist attractions like visits to the sugar and pineapple plantations. Giant King Grass could become the source of electricity for the entire island of Lanai -- recently purchased by Oracle CEO Larry Ellison -- and make it one of the world's first green resort destinations. This concept is not unique to Hawaii and applies to many islands and nations with tropical climates that depend on oil for their electricity. For these applications, Giant King Grass generated electricity is significantly cheaper, continuously renewable and green."

VIASPACE Board Chairman Dr. Kevin Schewe added: "The Giant King Grass now growing in Hawaii was provided by the VIASPACE nursery in California. We have recently shipped GKG seedlings from California for projects with three other customers and Dr. Kukkonen is currently out of the country and personally supervising planting of GKG with one of these new customers. We are anxious to announce these projects and are respecting our clients' internal timelines and needs in this regard. We have graduated from an R&D company and are busy executing our business strategy on a global scale."

About VIASPACE Inc.
VIASPACE grows renewable Giant King™ 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 that does not compete with or displace food production.

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, 2011, and other factors over which VIASPACE has little or no control.