VIASPACE Press Release

VIASPACE CEO Reports on Electronics OEM Progress on Commercialization of Direct Methanol Fuel Cells

05/15/2008

PASADENA, CA - May 15, 2008-VIASPACE Inc. (OTCBB: VSPC) CEO, Dr. Carl Kukkonen reports that Sony unveiled its previously secret direct methanol fuel cell at the recent Small Fuel Cells 2008 conference in Atlanta. In addition, Samsung publicly acknowledged its cartridge partnership with VIASPACE subsidiary Direct Methanol Fuel Cell Corporation (DMFCC) at the conference. IDG News Service reported on May 9 that "Toshiba plans to begin mass production of direct methanol fuel cells by March next year." These announcements demonstrate the progress in commercialization of direct methanol fuel cells. .

VIASPACE and DMFCC manufacture disposable fuel cartridges for portable electronics applications, and fuel cell and battery test equipment. VIASPACE also sells high-quality and safe rechargeable lithium-based batteries.

About 300 global technology leaders attended the three-day 10th annual Small Fuel Cells conference which focused on small and portable fuel cells and fuel cells hybridized with rechargeable batteries for commercial and military applications. Attendees included representatives from large companies such as Samsung, Sony, DuPont, Energizer, Motorola, Honeywell, Toshiba, 3M, as well as many smaller companies and universities. Many technologies were discussed, but the largest number of talks was on direct methanol fuel cells including presentations by Sony, Samsung, DMFCC, Smart Fuel Cell, PolyFuel and Cabot.

Dr. Kukkonen comments on the conference, "In the session, where I gave a talk, Sony revealed that they had been working in secret for several years on direct methanol fuel cells. They showed impressive data and said that their commercial target was Sony hand-held portable electronics such as mobile phones, digital cameras, game consoles and Walkman. Sony revealed itself as a player for the first time, and captured a lot of attention. They emphasized that their solution was a fuel cell hybridized with a small battery for optimum performance. DMFCC fully agrees with this approach, and VIASPACE has the batteries needed for hybridization."

Samsung followed Sony on the program and reported on the results of their extensive testing of direct methanol fuel cells and stacks under a wide range of environmental and user conditions. The Samsung presentation showed that they are at the later stages of development commercialization gathering data and statistics on performance, stability and reliability.

Kukkonen continued, "We were gratified that Samsung acknowledged its partnership with DMFCC on fuel cartridges. DMFCC and its Japanese partner, Sato Group, provided the cartridges to Samsung for their system testing. My talk was on creating the global infrastructure for cartridge manufacturing and distribution. I was pleased to be able to announce the April 30 the ruling by the US Department of Transportation allowing airline passengers and crew to carry on methanol fuel cells and cartridges. This is an important breakthrough for the industry."
On May 9, 2009 IDG News Service reported Toshiba's aggressive midterm management plan to dramatically increase corporate profits. According to IDG, "Thursday's announcement represents Toshiba strongest commitment yet to getting DMFCs out of the door. Toshiba has set aside a portion of its capital expenditure to build a DMFC production line and products are now expected this fiscal year, which is the period to the end of March 2009."

About VIASPACE: Originally founded in 1998 with the objective of transforming proven space and defense technologies from NASA and the Department of Defense into hardware and software solutions that solve today's complex problems, VIASPACE benefits from important patent and software licenses from Caltech, which manages NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. For more information, please visit our website at www.VIASPACE.com, or contact for Investor Relations, Dr. Jan Vandersande, Director of Communications at 800-517-8050, or [email protected].

Press contact: Carl Kukkonen 626-768-3360
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This news release includes forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements relate to future events or our 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 the risks outlined in our periodic filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Annual Report on Form 10-KSB, for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2007, as well as general economic and business conditions, the ability to acquire and develop specific projects and technologies, the ability to fund operations, changes in consumer and business consumption habits, and other factors over which VIASPACE has little or no control.