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National-scale Wave Energy Resource Assessment for Australia

Created 16/10/2025

Updated 16/10/2025

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A nationally-consistent wave resource assessment is presented for Australian shelf (<300 m) waters. Wave energy and power were derived from significant wave height and period, and wave direction hindcast using the AusWAM model for the period 1 March 1997 to 29 February 2008 inclusive. The spatial distribution of wave energy and power is available on a 0.1° grid covering 110'156° longitude and 7'46° latitude. Total instantaneous wave energy on the entire Australian shelf is on average 3.47 PJ. Wave power is greatest on the 3,000 km-long southern Australian shelf (Tasmania/Victoria, southern Western Australia and South Australia), where it widely attains a time-average value of 25-35 kW m-1 (90th percentile of 60-78 kW m-1), delivering 800-1100 GJ m-1 of energy in an average year. New South Wales and southern Queensland shelves, with moderate levels of wave power (time-average: 10-20 kW m-1; 90th percentile: 20-30 kW m-1), are also potential sites for electricity generation due to them having a similar reliability in resource delivery to the southern margin. Time-average wave power for most of the northern Australian shelf is <10 kW m-1. Seasonal variations in wave power are consistent with regional weather patterns, which are characterised by winter SE trade winds/summer monsoon in the north and winter temperate storms/summer sea breezes in the south. The nationally-consistent wave resource assessment for Australian shelf waters can be used to inform policy development and site-selection decisions by industry.

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Additional Info

Field Value
Title National-scale Wave Energy Resource Assessment for Australia
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/c92bee0c-d7bc-4c6f-afa5-6f8c12f56977
Contact Point
Geoscience Australia Data
clientservices@ga.gov.au
Reference Period 22/04/2018
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
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  "coordinates": [
    [
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        109.23348,
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      ],
      [
        163.19208,
        -47.193641
      ],
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      ],
      [
        109.23348,
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      ],
      [
        109.23348,
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      ]
    ]
  ],
  "type": "Polygon"
}
Data Portal Geoscience Australia

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on Geoscience Australia "National-scale Wave Energy Resource Assessment for Australia". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/national-scale-wave-energy-resource-assessment-for-australia