This paper argues for a broader evolutionary political economy understanding of local and regional path creation. We adopt a multi-actor and multi-scalar perspective, focusing on the roles of the state and local and regional policy interventions in mediating the creation of growth paths. The framework interprets attempts in North East England and Scotland to support path creation in the offshore wind sector through evolutionary inspired contextual policies. We demonstrate that the realisation of the intended effects of these policies remain crucially conditioned by the national political economy of energy policy and the power geometries of the governance of economic development.