OREANDA-NEWS. Panasonic Corp.'s solar cell sales volume will grow 25% on the year to 675,000kw for fiscal 2013 as more households and stores respond to rising electricity rates by installing solar panels.

To help boost sales, the company will from Thursday double the length of its panel output guarantee for new products. Until now, Panasonic has promised to replace panels free of charge if output falls below a certain level with 10 years of purchase. The warranty will be extended to 20 years in order to compete against panels from overseas manufacturers, which use low price as the key selling point.

The firm will also actively sell smaller panels that can even be installed on narrow roofs.

Panasonic put a Malaysian solar cell plant into service last year. The company says it will be able to raise total supply capacity to 900,000kw a year, including domestic plants, once this facility reaches full production.