Mitsubishi Electric Corporation yesterday announced plans for a 50bn yen ($459m) investment programme designed to quadruple its output of solar cells by 2012.

The company said it will construct a new building for photovoltaic (PV) cell production at its Nakatsugawa Works Iida Factory in Nagano Prefecture to help take its cell production capacity from its current level of 150 megawatts to 600 megawatts a year.

The building will be completed by the end of 2009, and will have solar cells on its roof to power part of the production process for the construction of further cells.

Speaking to news agency AFP, Aiji Suzuki, director of Mitsubishi Electric's main solar panel plant, said the move was required to help meet booming demand worldwide. "This market is expected to grow globally by about 20 per cent every year," she said. "The demand for solar power will likely reach 5,550 megawatts by 2012."

Her predictions echo similar research from analyst firm Lux Research, which claimed that the solar panel market was worth $21.2bn last year and will triple to be worth $71bn by 2012.

The new facility is the latest in a line of solar technology investments from Mitsubishi, which earlier this year saw the company claim it had developed one of the world's most efficient PV cells with an energy conversion efficiency rate of 97.5 per cent.