At a port on the Delaware River in southern New Jersey, construction workers are busy pouring a concrete foundation larger than a football field. By the end of the year, it will support a factory unlike anything ever built in the United States. The factory’s purpose: to turn sheets of steel from the heartland into columns that will underpin a colossal new tool in the fight against climate change.

Weighing up to five million pounds each, the 400-foot-long, 40-foot-wide “monopiles” will be heaved onto barges and ferried 15 miles offshore into the Atlantic Ocean. There, a crane on a specialized ship will stand them on end and drive them into the seafloor, creating a firm foundation for