VIASPACE, Inc. (VSPC) Ships 25 Acres of Giant King Grass to St. Croix
Today before the opening bell, VIASPACE announced that it has harvested a large number of seedlings from its Giant King Grass nursery in California and had them transported in a 40-foot refrigerated container to St. Croix, US Virgin Islands where they have been planted in a 25-acre propagation nursery operated by Tibbar Energy. Tibbar plans to propagate the Giant King Grass to create a 1,000+ acre plantation to fuel the 7 MW anaerobic digestion power plant under construction.
According to today’s press release, the Giant King Grass will be ready to propagate within six months. Tibbar anticipates having the power plant in operation in the first quarter of next year. The St. Croix Public Services Commission approved Tibbar Energy’s facility design for a 7 MW anaerobic generator that uses VIASPACE’s proprietary Giant King Grass energy crop in December 2012.
Tibbar Energy’s St. Croix project will be as close to organic farming as possible using the digestate from the anaerobic digestion process as a fertilizer to grow Giant King Grass. According to Tibbar President and CEO Tania Tomyn, the farm will be a conventional farming operation. Additionally, Tibbar will have a small amount of compressed natural gas that will be produced from the bio-gas to run the fleet of trucks that haul the Giant King Grass. These will be the first compressed natural gas trucks on St. Croix.
Tibbar Energy signed an exclusive agreement with VIASPACE in September 2012 and received a small initial shipment of Giant King Grass as an initial test. This Giant King Grass is now four months old and over 10 feet tall.
Tomyn commented, “The Giant King Grass grows well in tropical St. Croix. The test was very successful, and we decided to go forward with the 25 acre propagation nursery. We are slated to have the full plantation and power plant up and running by early second quarter of 2014.
Visit the links below to view pictures of the original Giant King Grass:
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“The 20 plus acre shipment to Tibbar was our largest from the propagation nursery in California,” stated VIASPACE CEO Dr. Carl Kukkonen. “Late December and January was a very busy time for VIASPACE. We shipped and planted Giant King Grass in South Africa, Hawaii and Central America in addition to St. Croix. The Department of Agriculture is working very closely with us to inspect the shipments and issue the phytosanitary certificates that show that the Giant King Grass is pest and disease free.”
VIASPACE Chairman, Dr. Kevin Schewe, added, “Having USDA approval of Giant King Grass and our domestic propagation nursery in California, have both significantly contributed to our ability to respond to our customers and the ever increasing demand for GKG as the world’s highest yielding biomass platform. This is certainly true in our partnership with Tibbar Energy in St. Croix and we are so pleased with every aspect of our project there. We are receiving more requests for proposals than ever before and believe that the rapidly increasing global demand has made GKG the biomass platform of choice because its high yield makes the economics of this green energy business profitable.
For more information, visit www.VIASPACE.com
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