Viaspace announced that the St. Croix government has approved Tibbar Energy's permit to build a 7-megawatt biogas power plant on the island of St. Croix.

The government approved the permit on Tuesday evening, March 25, 2014 during a meeting at the Virgin Islands Port Authority.

The final approval came from the Virgin Island Department on Planning and Natural Resources’ Division of Coastal Zone Management (CMZ). The CMZ decision was the last step that Tibbar Energy needed in order to begin construction on its 7-megawatt biogas power plant which will supply electricity created from VIASPACE Giant King Grass to the Virgin Island Water and Power Authority (WAPA) for at least the next 25 years.

Tania Tomyn, Tibbar Energy CEO, stated, "Tibbar is thrilled about building its renewable energy plant on St. Croix. We will provide 7 megawatts of base load power for WAPA for the next 25 years from Giant King Grass grown on the island. Tibbar is required to begin producing power by December 2015 pursuant to the power purchase agreement. WAPA has no other base load renewable power source and Tibbar’s project will allow WAPA to be compliant under the Renewable Portfolio Standard. Tibbar’s general contractor will begin site work as early as May or June and the expected schedule is 18 months for both the farming operations and the biogas plant. The project should create more than 150 jobs during construction and 35 permanent jobs."

Mary Eckard, President of the St. Croix Chamber of Commerce, was quoted, "The St. Croix Chamber of Commerce is elated to hear of the creation of 150 construction jobs and 35 permanent jobs on the island of St. Croix at a time when our economy sorely needs jobs. We are also very excited and supportive of anything that can meaningfully and immediately reduce our cost of energy on the island of St. Croix."

Tomyn concluded, "I am proud to be a resident of St. Croix and take part in developing a green energy source that will reduce power costs, create jobs and is independent from fossil fuels.”

Tibbar is also providing 1,000 bales of hay for the Virgin Island Department of Agriculture for small farmer’s livestock throughout the territory. In addition to the electricity power production, the power plant design process will produce hundreds of tons of quality organic fertilizer per year.

Tibbar has agreed to provide this organic fertilizer to the Department of Agriculture and to local farmers at no cost. Last July 2013, Tibbar executed with WAPA a 25 year Power Purchase Agreement with a 5 year extension option for $0.245/kwh and at the same time executed an interconnection agreement. The entire project is carbon neutral and represents the Caribbean’s first continuously renewable, green energy, biomass power plant.