VIASPACE Inc., a clean energy company growing Giant King(TM) Grass as a renewable, low carbon, energy crop, announced this morning that its Chief Executive, Dr. Carl Kukkonen, will be presenting the company’s Giant King Grass at the Next-Generation Biofuels Feedstocks USA Conference to be held November 16-17, 2009, at Le Meridien Hotel in San Francisco.
Contrived to identify renewable energy feedstocks with the most potential, the conference will be attended by leading experts, business executives, investors and others to discuss the challenges and opportunities in next-generation biofuels feedstocks. The conference will also compare how existing and next-generation feedstocks impact the environment. Prices, market trends and yield potential will also be considered in the comparisons.
VIASPACE Chief Executive Dr. Carl Kukkonen commented, “Whether biomass is used to generate electricity or as feedstock for producing green gasoline, price, supply reliability, technical performance and environmental effects are critical issues. We feel that, in general, dedicated energy crops grown specifically for use as feedstock can meet the needs of energy producers. The very high yield and verified technical performance of Giant King Grass make it a highly competitive and economically advantageous energy crop. As a result we are seeing increasing interest in our Giant King Grass and are in discussions to establish long-term supply agreements.”
From a business standpoint, even a relatively small 30-megawatt (MW) biomass power plant would use 175,000 tons of Giant King Grass each year, potentially generating $6.3 million in grass sales. A much larger 2,000-MW coal-fired power plant, by replacing only 20% of its coal with Giant King Grass pellets, would require approximately 2.3 million tons of grass pellets per year, representing sales of approximately $230 million. Both projections are based on current prices for biomass and pellets.
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