A mega-dam in Laos has begun to generate electricity, its operators have announced.
The Nam Theun 2 dam, the largest-infrastructure project in the developing country, began commercial export of 1,000 megawatts of electricity on Monday, with some also sold to the domestic power supplier, the Nam Theun Co said.
The £948 million hydroelectric facility is co-owned by Electricite de France, the Lao government, the Electricity Generating Public Co of Thailand and Italian-Thai Development.
The consortium has a 25-year concession during which it is to pay the Lao government £1.37bn in royalties, dividends and taxes.
After 25 years, the dam is to be fully owned by the government.
Laos has pledged to spend revenues from the World Bank-backed project on poverty reduction programmes.
But environmental groups have criticised the project, alleging that it has spurred illegal logging, incursions into a bio-diverse region and relocations of villagers.
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