Plans are accelerating to develop the offshore wind sector now emerging along the US eastern seaboard, with states from North Carolina to Maine having set goals for a total of more than 40GW of plant to be operation by 2040, 16GW of which has already been assigned through offtake contract.

But one state in the region stands apart. Delaware, though the earliest mover in the US Atlantic play with the ill-fated Bluewater Wind project that ran aground in the late-2000s, has so far forgone participation in an industry that its own university predicts could generate $109bn