The objective of the present work is to evaluate the patterns of wave power resources around the Madeira Islands. An analysis of the wave climate in the target area is first carried out based on satellite, buoy and hindcast wave data. As a further step, a SWAN based wave prediction system is validated against remotely sensed data over the entire area of the archipelago and this is subsequently used to evaluate the most relevant patterns from the point of view of the spatial distribution of the wave power. The model simulations, which are focused on the two main islands of the archipelago, made also apparent some nearshore locations where significant concentrations of wave energy usually occur. Corresponding to these energy hot spots, diagrams for the bivariate distributions of the sea states occurrences, defined by the significant wave height and the energy period, are designed and the performances of various types of wave energy converters were assessed. According to these evaluations, the efficiency of the wave energy conversion appears to be highly dependent on the distribution of the wave energy along the sea states. The results of the present work show that Madeira Archipelago, and especially the coastal environment of the Porto Santo Island, may be considered appropriate for an efficient extraction of wave energy. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.