Involution, or neijuan, is a Chinese term which many in the wider world are probably familiar with at this point. It means diminishing returns, in the grueling pursuit of minor improvements once all the easy ground has been staked out. It applies very well to the current situation in China’s solar manufacturing industry. Said industry has twofold overcapacity, rock-bottom prices, and some new manufacturing capacity being cancelled – but astonishingly, it also still has new billion-dollar factory expansions being announced, in pursuit of truly marginal improvements in product quality and marginal cost of production. When profit margins are low, this makes it harder to fund new production line upgrades, but in a sad irony it also makes it completely necessary.…