VIASPACE CTO & Wife Support Mother Teresa Missionaries of Charity School in Nicaragua as Biomass Power Plant Project Advances

WALNUT, Calif., Feb. 23, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- On January 11, 2016, VIASPACE Inc. (OTC: VSPC) issued a press release providing an update on the Energia Reino Verde biomass power plant project being developed by VIASPACE and partners in Nicaragua. Energia Reino Verde is a 12 MW biomass power plant that will be co-located with the 834 hectare (2,060 acre) Giant King^® Grass plantation project. VIASPACE Inc. owns a 50% interest in Energia Reino Verde (Green Kingdom Energy in English), the special-purpose company that will own and operate the project. The other 50% is owned by investors and executives of AGRICORP - a large agribusiness company in Nicaragua. An offer for project debt financing has been received from a partnership of two global development banks. An EPC contract has been signed with a well-known company. The Ministry of Energy and Mines of Nicaragua is currently evaluating the Energia Reino Verde application for a provisional generation permit.

VIASPACE Chief Technology Officer Dr. Carl Kukkonen reports, "VIASPACE business interests are the clean renewable energy power plant and Giant King Grass plantation, which require me to travel frequently to Nicaragua.  On some trips, my wife, Noreen, accompanies me.  She often spends time assisting the Missionaries of Charity in Granada, Nicaragua. This order of nuns founded by Mother Teresa in India operates a program in the poorest area of Granada.  They shelter and educate teenage girls who have been victims of abuse.  They also run a day care for the poor, where the children get a safe environment and healthy meals, and they operate a soup kitchen for the community. My wife and I bring them donated clothing collected from our community, which the missionaries distribute in the Granada area.  VIASPACE and Agricorp have donated computers considered obsolete in the U.S. to the school, which had none before."

Kukkonen continued, "In the fall of 2015 we were made aware of a particular need that we could help with.  A young woman who had lived with the sisters for more than ten years had been attending college and was ready to graduate.  Many schools in Nicaragua require an additional "module" of education following completion of degree requirements in order to obtain the diploma vital to their employment possibilities.  We funded this woman and another who supports her family by working at the mission. They are the first college graduates and serve as a role model for the younger girls living at the mission.  These young women both received diplomas in Tourism and Hotel Administration from the University Hispanoamericana in Granada and are currently seeking employment and the opportunity to begin life outside the protective environment of the mission."

Pictures from the graduation and the Missionaries of Charity in Nicaragua are available on the VIASPACE Facebook page www.facebook.com/viaspaceinc.

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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 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 [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, 2015, and other factors over which VIASPACE has little or no control.

SOURCE VIASPACE Inc.

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