The manufacturing of solar panels has stalled for the first time since the early 2010s. The latest Chinese figures, from H1 2024 – namely 1.06 million tons polysilicon, 365.7 GW wafer, 285 GW cell, per the 21st Century Business Herald (other sources are only very slightly different) – show 75%, 44% and 40% growth year on year – but that’s only if you compare to H1 2023. There was rapid expansion in output in H2 2023, and from that level, production grew further – only to sink back downward. In the crucial wafer segment, which conveniently only exists at scale inside China, the 50 GW per month mark was first reached in June 2023, with 51.2 GW produced, peaking in…