VIASPACE Press Release

VIASPACE DISCUSSES GIANT KING GRASS AT BIOFUELS CONFERENCE IN JAKARTA, INDONESIA

07/07/2009

Sees Growing Markets, Opportunities in Region

IRVINE, CA- July 7, 2009-VIASPACE, Inc. (OTCBB: VSPC), a clean energy company providing products and technology for renewable and alternative energy, announced that Chief Executive Dr. Carl Kukkonen made an invited presentation entitled, "Giant King Grass: An Energy Crop for Cellulosic Biofuels and Electric Power Plants" at the Biofuels and Jatropha Markets Asia conference in Jakarta, Indonesia, June 29-July 1, 2009.  The presentation is available on the home page of the VIASPACE website http://www.viaspace.com/ .

Attendees and speakers at the fourth annual conference featured business executives and government officials from Asia, Europe, Australia, Africa, the Middle East, India and the United States.

According to government officials speaking at the conference, Indonesia has an ideal climate for growing renewable non-food feedstock for biofuels. To promote growth of renewable low-carbon energy sources such as Giant King Grass, Indonesia has installed an aggressive government program supporting alternative energy, including a goal to fulfill 10% of its energy consumption using biofuels.

Based on the country's energy consumption trend, reaching that goal will require the production of 46 million tons of biofuels by 2020. While palm oil, a food source, and jatropha are suitable for biodiesel production, Giant King Grass is a non-food source that is suitable for both biodiesel and grassoline for gasoline powered engines.

VIASPACE is cultivating and marketing fast-growing Giant King Grass as a non-food feedstock for producing cellulosic low-carbon biofuels, also known as grassoline, and as a biomass replacement for coal as the heat source for electricity generating power plants.

Dr. Kukkonen remarked: "High yield, dedicated energy crops such as Giant King Grass are in increasing demand for producing biofuels that can replace oil as a major energy source. Diesel engines can benefit from bio-diesel, but most cars and trucks still run on gasoline. Since Giant King Grass can be used for both grassoline and diesel fuel, we see promising potential in the Indonesian biofuels market. In addition, Giant King Grass can be used as biomass to replace coal as the heat source for power plants that generate electricity. Considering the multiple growing markets for Giant King Grass as a renewable source of non-petroleum energy and government incentives being provided, I believe we have an attractive business opportunity in providing the renewable feedstocks for decades to come."

Dr. Kukkonen was also a panelist for the session on "The Potential of Cellulosic Ethanol." The panel was organized by Nicholas Ashby of Celadon Capital in Malaysia. Other panelists were from Novozymes, US and China; and Green Energy Solutions, Indonesia.

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 other high-pollutant energy sources. The Company provides raw material for cellulosic biofuels and develops and markets fuel cell cartridges, products and technology. VIASPACE subsidiary Direct Methanol Fuel Cell Corporation owns a portfolio of fuel cell patents licensed from Pasadena-based California Institute of Technology (Caltech), which manages NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where the direct methanol fuel cell was invented. VIASPACE subsidiary Ionfinity has operations in security-related systems and technology for military, defense and commercial applications. For more information, please see http://www.viaspace.com/ or contact Dr. Jan Vandersande, Director of Communications, at 800-517-8050 or mailto:[email protected].

Safe Harbor Statement

Information in this press release and interview includes forward-looking statements which 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 the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2008, as well as general economic and business conditions; changes in demand for the Company's products; competition from larger companies; technological change; and other factors over which VIASPACE has little or no control.