Leveraging the high-performance computing capability at one of the US Department of Energy's (USDOE) National Laboratories, an ultra-high-resolution Simulating WAves Nearshore (SWAN) model suitable for wave energy project feasibility studies is developed for the US East Coast Region. This model uses an unstructured mesh with a coastal resolution of 200 m. It is forced by Climate Forecast System Reanalysis wind fields with spatial and temporal resolutions of 0.312 degrees and 1 hat the surface, and by wave parameters from the global WAVEWATCH III model along the model's open boundaries. It is the first USDOE regional wave hindcast model for the US East Coast developed according to International Electrotechnical Commission standards for wave energy resource assessment and characterization. The present study focuses on the development and validation of this ultra-high resolution large-scale model, including source model selection, sensitivity studies, and model performance evaluation for a wave energy resource characterization application. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.