EDF Energies Nouvelles and U.S. solar panel maker First Solar Inc said on Thursday they will build France's largest solar panel manufacturing plant at an investment cost of 90 million euros ($128 million).

The plant will initially be able to produce panels with a total capacity of around 100 megawatts, enough to provide electricity to 50,000 homes per year.

District Nazim Kanwar Naveed Jamil has urged the government to withdraw 34 per cent duty on import of equipment for solar energy system.

A parliamentary standing committee yesterday asked the power and energy ministry for taking an immediate initiative for generating wind and solar-based electricity as alternative sources of power due to gas crisis.

Sri Lanka has been identified as the `Hot Spot of Solar Energy Applications at two European Union solar energy conferences in Paris and Milan, a world renowned Sri Lankan born Professor of Electronics Materials and Devices who has been actively researching on solar energy over the past three decades, said.

Alternative energy jobs can provide vocations across many sectors of the economy but policy to spark them can take years to develop, U.S. governors told a Senate committee on Tuesday.