Clean power group Carnegie Corporation says more than a third of Australia's base-load power needs could be economically generated by wave technology.

Australia has a potential near-shore wave energy resource of about 171,000 megawatts (MW), four times the country's total installed power generation capacity, Carnegie said today - citing a report it commissioned from RPS MetOcean.

"This report further supports Carnegie's view that Australia has the world's best wave energy resource - a resource we hope will be utilised through technologies such as CETO for base-load power generation," managing director Michael Ottaviano said.

CETO technology uses submerged units anchored to the sea floor that move with the motion of passing waves, driving pumps which in turn pressurise seawater that is delivered ashore through a pipeline.

The high-pressure seawater is used to drive hydroelectric turbines and generate base-load electricity.

"Carnegie will use the RPS study to further inform commercial CETO site selection, which will be followed by more detailed site-specific modelling to determine the design and construction of any commercial wave energy generation site," Dr Ottaviano said.

Carnegie said a "conservative" 10 per cent of Australia's calculated near-shore wave resource was estimated to be economically extractable.

This means that about 35 per cent of Australia's current power usage could be met by harnessing wave energy, the company said.

Western Australian Sustainable Energy Association Chief Executive Ray Wills said with the majority of Australia's 20 million residents living close to the coast, wave technology could play a more important role as a source of power.

AAP