VIASPACE Press Release

?Giant King Grass is the Lowest Cost Cellulosic Feedstock for a Biorefinery?: From VIASPACE Presentation at Biorefining Conference Now Online

10/17/2011

IRVINE, Calif.-October 17, 2011-VIASPACE Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: VSPC - News), a clean energy company growing Giant King^TM Grass as a dedicated energy crop, and its subsidiary VIASPACE Green Energy Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: VGREF), today announced that the invited presentation made by chief executive Dr. Carl Kukkonen at the Biorefining Conference is now online at the VIASPACE website http://www.viaspace.com/.  The Biorefining Conference was held in Houston, Texas September 14-18, 2011.

Dr. Kukkonen's presentation entitled "Biorefinery Feedstock and Fuel for Bioenergy" is summarized below.

••          Giant King Grass is the lowest cost cellulosic feedstock for a biorefinery

••          Co-location of biorefinery with Giant King Grass plantation greatly simplifies logistics

•-        Sugar-based biorefineries are co-locating in Brazil to reduce costs

••          New approaches of just-in-time harvesting and using wet biomass further reduce costs

••          Giant King Grass can also fuel boilers to produce process heat, steam & electricity

Biorefineries convert plants and other living materials to biofuels, biochemicals and biomaterials including bio plastics.  Giant King Grass has been tested and shown to be suitable for producing bioethanol, and other products using the fermentation pathway.

Giant King Grass can also be burned in a power plant to generate electricity; for energy pellets to be co-fired in coal burning power plants; and to produce biogas through anaerobic digestion.

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, pellets, 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 http://www.viaspace.com/ or http://www.viaspacegreenenergy.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, 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.