In recent years, the balance usually tips in China's favor when it comes to trade with the United States. But according to a new study there's at least one sector in which America is starting to have the upper hand: clean energy.

The United States exported more clean energy products to China in 2011 than it imported, according to a report released Wednesday by the Pew Charitable Trusts, ultimately amounting to a $1.63 billion trade surplus in solar and wind power equipment among other products.

About $8.5 billion worth of clean energy goods and services shuttled between the world's two largest economies in 2011, according to Pew. While that's just a sliver of the half a trillion dollars' worth of goods and services traded between China and the United States, the U.S. surplus in the clean energy sector challenges widely held views that China is becoming the world's foremost supplier.