Dominion’s early cost estimate is $7.8bn for a massive 2.64GW wind farm that the electric utility plans to build facing the coast of Virginia, easily the most expensive and largest array proposed by the nascent US offshore industry.

The eye-opening price tag includes $800m already committed by Dominion’s subsidiary in Virginia this year through 2023.

“Preliminary cost estimates, which we will work hard to reduce in the interest of customer savings, total an additional $7bn.