In a recent visit to Unity, Huang Ming, chairman of the world's largest solar thermal manufacturer, expressed an apparently sincere debt of gratitude the United States for the country's pioneering work in the development of solar energy.

But as the youthful entrepreneur showed one example after another of recent creative applications of solar technology in China — most on a grand scale, most done by his company Himin Solar Energy Group, and nearly all executed with the kind of playful panache that suggests neither money, expertise, nor ambition are in short supply — it became clear which country is at the forefront today.

Huang was in Unity to receive a solar panel that had been installed on the roof of the White House by President Jimmy Carter in 1979. The panel was one of a number of panels that had been on the White House roof until the mid-80's, and which were brought to Unity College in 1991. The college was presenting Huang with a panel as a gift to the people of China.

The panels were just as symbolic in 1979 as they are today — Carter had set a goal that 20 percent of U.S. energy consumption would be supplied by renewable sources by the year 2000 — but while the U.S. has done little in the intervening years to advance the cause of renewable energy, China seems to be on a fast track to not only replicating the entire history of American industrialization, from the early days of heavy industry and crippling pollution, to the creation of a middle class, but fulfilling the renewable energy promises of thirty years of American presidents, all within a matter of decades.

Asked what role the Chinese government played in the success of Himin Energy Group, Huang credited the Open Door policy that allowed for trade between China and the rest of the world, but balked at the idea that a transformation of the industry would come from government mandates or subsidies. Like the automobile, the cellular phone and the computer, innovations would have to come from the marketplace, he said.

This wisdom seems contrary to the experience in the United States since 1979, where private enterprise has generally dodged environmental concerns. The difference can be partly explained, Huang noted, by the fact that China's private sector has had to respond to the country's immediate energy and environmental crises in a way that, to date, the U.S. private sector has not needed to.

Meanwhile, the biggest U.S. investor in energy efficiency and renewables today appears to be the federal government by way of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act — the Department of Energy is among the largest recipients of ARRA funds, and President Obama recently pledged $2 billion to a pair of solar panel manufacturers, one of which is slated to build the largest solar panel manufacturing facility in the world.

Maine recently opened the floodgates to wind energy prospectors, though as a three-part series by the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting — the first installment of which appears on the front page of this edition — suggests, the effects of the 2008 Wind Power Act are seeing a backlash from residents and regulators. Wind energy developments have been a source of lucrative tax credits, and while they may ultimately prove beneficial, their symbolic association with an ideal of clean, renewable energy arguably allowed major projects to be built without proper regulatory oversight. Such are the hazards of pursuing an idea.

While China struggles to stop choking on its own exhaust fumes, U.S. citizens have yet to truly feel the effects of our extravagant energy consumption. This disconnect leaves us vulnerable to the sales pitches of would-be environmental interests who see dollar signs in government subsidies for projects that only appear to benefit the environment. Guarding against these abuses will require more vigilance than simply looking to see what color smoke is coming out of the smokestack.

In the meantime, local efforts like the Green Cone pilot program in Belfast and the ambitious scope of the region's recycling efforts are encouraging and worthy of public support.

Unity College deserves praise for bringing Huang Ming to Midcoast Maine. And as college officials lamented before the event, it's a shame that more of the state's business and government representatives passed on the opportunity to see him speak. His expansive vision of an industrial, solar-powered, LED-lit utopia may not offer a cut-and-dried solution to the energy and environmental concerns in the U.S., but as Huang pointed out, China and the U.S. will have to work together if a global environmental calamity is to be avoided. Last week's introduction is undoubtedly a step in the right direction.