5 Ideal Locations For Wave Energy

6 min readNov 3, 2020

Since wave energy is an up and coming renewable source, there are no large scale wave farms established yet anywhere in the world.

However, since a number of companies around the world are at the cusp of commercializing devices that have commercial potential, more and more areas are being assessed as ideal locations for wave energy farms.

The choice of a suitable site is based on the following criteria and questions:

Does the resource have sufficient wave energy intensity?
How far away from shore do the forms need to be located for commercial viability?
Are there obstacles for permitting such as shipping and fishing considerations?
Do local manufacturing and operation and maintenance costs support commercial viability?
Does the local electricity pricing allow for new wave plants to offer an attractive return on investment to project investors?
Are there feed-in tariffs, subsidies, or other incentives from national and state governments that facilitate the adoption of new renewables such as wave energy?

From a resource wave energy intensity standpoint, the questions to consider are:

Is it on the west coast?
Is there a large oceanfront without any blocks or bays?
Is the coastline steep or narrow?
Is it close or far from the equator?

Locations further away from the equator on the west coasts of continents or islands with large stretches of uninterrupted ocean tend to be the most ideal locations for wave energy conversion devices. This is particularly due to the fact that wave energy is ultimately driven by surface winds on the ocean, and regular wind patterns and the energy build-up that accumulates over these long stretches of ocean that eventually gets delivered to shore result in greater energy being delivered on the west coasts of continents and islands further away from the equator.

After putting various locations through these criteria, we feel the top five optimal sites for wave energy devices, not in order of priority, are:

Australia
Western Europe
India
US West Coast
Island Nations

Understanding which locations are optimal for wave power is not always intuitive, but by showcasing where wave energy will be ideal, we hope to pique your interest and inspire you to learn more about wave energy as a whole.

1. Australia

Australia’s western coastline for all the reasons outlined above has a large untapped potential for wave energy converters.

In fact, Carnegie Wave Energy’s Perth Wave Energy Project is located in Western Australia. In addition, Australia tends to have higher electricity prices (approximately $0.24 per kWh). In combination, excellent geography and electricity prices make Western Australia one of the top locations for commercial wave energy farms.

2. Europe’s West Coast

The strongest countries in Europe for wave energy technology include the UK (including Scotland and Ireland), France, Norway, and Denmark. In these locations, the Atlantic ocean has impressive waves and also meets all the essential criteria. However, in these locations extreme waves can reach up to 30 and 40 feet, thus the wave energy conversion devices must have a survival strategy that will allow the device to work in extreme waves while also producing energy.

The UK has especially taken a leadership role in the EU ocean energy sector, which has called for 100MW of ocean wave energy by 2025. Organizations such as Wave Energy Scotland are also spearheading the advancement of wave technology in respective locations throughout Europe.

3. India

At first glance, India would not seem like an ideal location, since it is close to the equator. However, it does meet all other criteria, including strong waves along its west coast.

Compared to locations like Europe, India’s locations would produce less energy on average, but devices in India would not have to deal with the risk of extreme weather conditions that are so common in Europe and other ideal locations.

Designing for extreme waves is a huge cost driver in wave energy manufacturing. Thus, you can produce a more cost-effective system in locations like India where you can design for moderate waves, while also reducing capital costs from labor and materials. Being a relatively low-cost location allows us to drive down the cost of the converter, not just for the local market but for different markets as well.

Moreover, unlike any of the locations mentioned in this article, India happens to be a region where the electricity demand is growing rapidly in the next ten years. Total electricity demand is expected to almost double by 2040. This rate coupled with India’s massive push for more clean energy by 2030, makes it a lucrative market for wave energy renewables.

For these reasons, companies such as Oscilla Power are planning to launch their first utility-scale wave energy converters in India and are on track to demo their 1-MW Triton system in Southern India in the near future.

4. The Canadian and US West Coast

The west coast of the United States and Canada has tremendous wave energy resources, with waves sometimes as strong as 35 to 40 kWM. In addition to meeting all the essential criteria, the US west coast has a main differentiator. While the electricity demand in Europe averages at $0.15 per kWH, the US west coast’s averages at $0.05 per kWH. While this does result in some challenges for early adoption, these challenges can be mitigated by (1) further technology advancements to increase annual energy capture and reduce capital and/or operating costs; (2) government incentives such as subsidies or feed-in tariffs for early projects; and (3) establishing scale in some of the other locations mentioned and driving costs down to the point where new wave plants can be commercially attractive on the US West Coast. From there, wave energy will be able work off a price that allows it to be an attractive part of the energy mix complementary to other energy sources. Northern California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and Alaska will benefit from the wide-scale commercial adoption of wave energy.

5. Island Nations

Island nations typically have energy economies with high electricity prices. Fiji for example gets most of its power by transporting diesel to the island and burning it on-site. Due to the shipping costs, electricity prices are very high sometimes in the range of $0.30 to $0.40 per kWH even though they don’t have extreme electricity demands like India.

Most of the locations have wave energy resources that meet our criteria, which means that wave energy can become a viable competitor with a cost-effective advantage compared to diesel.

Many companies and research groups already have looked to tap into the Island Nations abundant wave energy resources such as Seabased who launched a Caribbean project in 2018.

Waves are a massive resource that is an excellent complement to other renewables and can enable overall penetration of renewables replacing fossil fuels if it can be adopted at scale.

There are many locations where early projects can show proof of concept and where commercial adoption be accelerated by offering incentives to get to large scale projects.

To learn more, we encourage you to check out companies like Oscilla Power, that are championing wave energy technologies to make them cost-competitive and commercially attractive all over the world.