The wave characteristics on the coastal waters of northeast Taiwan at Longdong and Suao have been analyzed for wave energy potential evaluation. The recorded hourly data during 2004~2010 from in-situ data buoys were adopted first for studying wave characteristics. They include joint probability distribution of wave heights and periods and rose map of wave direction and wave heights. Then, the wave energy was calculated to investigate monthly average wave energy at both sites.
The results of wave characteristics have typically illustrated waves with heights from 1~2m and 1~1.5m and with periods from 8~9s and 5~7s at Longdong and Suao, respectively. It is clearly seen that the representative wave direction is in NE. Furthermore, the calculated wave energy potentials at Longdong and Suao have indicated that at both sites there were 6 and 3 months of average wave power larger than 10kW/m in winter.
