ASX-listed Frontier Energy has executed an AU$280 million (US$196 million) syndicated debt facility for Stage One of its 132MW Waroona solar-plus-storage project in Western Australia.
The senior secured, non-recourse debt will fund construction and operation of the first stage, which pairs a 132MW solar PV plant with an 81.5MW/562MWh battery storage system about 120km south of Perth.
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Frontier informed the exchange on 2 November that the agreement was signed through its wholly owned subsidiary WRP Finance. It follows the credit-approved underwriting letter and term sheet the company announced on 17 July, shortly before it appointed Monford Group as engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor.
The lending syndicate is led by Natixis Corporate & Investment Banking (Natixis CIB) and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC). Natixis CIB is the investment banking arm of France’s Groupe BPCE, while SMBC is the main banking business of Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group. Frontier has not named the other members of the syndicate.
The facility is split into three parts: a construction and term facility of up to around AU$250 million, a bank guarantee facility of up to AU$13 million and a debt service reserve facility of up to AU$17 million. Frontier said in July that all three qualify under the Green Loan Principles.
Legal maturity is three years from financial close, with a one-year extension available at each lender’s discretion. Repayments are sculpted over a notional 18-year period.
Frontier said the debt, together with the AU$110 million equity placement completed in July, is expected to fully fund Stage One through to first generation in 2028. At the time of the equity raise, the company said it was seeking senior debt to cover up to 70% of Stage One funding.
Financial close is expected in November, subject to conditions precedent. These include signing a Capacity Investment Scheme (CIS) agreement with the federal government and entering interest rate hedging to fix the rate over the term of the construction facility.
Frontier said both conditions will be satisfied “in the coming weeks”, with first drawdown forecast for the first quarter of 2027.
Jamie Cullen, executive chair of Frontier, said execution of the facility “comes as site works at Stage One are ramping up”. He thanked Azure Capital, which acted as the company’s debt finance advisor.
Revenue support, EPC and battery storage contracts in place
The CIS is a federal revenue-underwriting scheme under which the government makes top-up payments if a project’s revenue falls below an agreed-upon floor.
In May, Waroona Stage One was one of three battery storage projects selected under Tender 6, as Western Australia awarded 1.9GW of renewables and 3.7GWh of battery storage under CIS Tenders 5 and 6. Frontier said the award gives the project downside revenue protection until 2042. The floor price has not been disclosed.
The project has changed shape since Frontier acquired the original developer, Waroona Energy, in late 2023. In 2024, the company lined up AU$215 million of debt from Infradebt for a 120MW first stage, but the project was paused that October after it missed out on Reserve Capacity Credits from the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO).
Solar capacity has since risen to 132MW through a switch to 660W modules, and storage duration was extended to 6.9 hours to meet a 6-hour minimum under the state’s reserve capacity rules.
Monford, a Western Australian contractor that previously built the 128MWdc Cunderdin solar-plus-storage plant, holds a fixed-price EPC contract and will take AU$5 million of its contract value in Frontier shares. In September, Frontier contracted Trina Storage to supply the 562MWh battery storage system, with a 20-year warranty and a long-term services agreement.
Frontier buys the main equipment under fixed-price contracts and passes it to Monford, which takes delivery at Fremantle Port.
The company said the first trackers are due in November 2026 and the first solar modules in January 2027. Its connection agreements with Western Power allow exports of up to 99MW and imports of up to 95MW to charge the battery storage system.
Frontier plans a staged build-out to around 1GW of solar and 660MW of battery storage by 2031. Stage Two, of about 120MW of solar and 80MW of storage, already has development approval.
The pipeline sits alongside the state government’s target of 75% renewable energy on the South West Interconnected System (SWIS) by 2030-31, with the state’s coal-fired generation scheduled to retire by 2030. Cullen said Frontier will “continue to work through future expansion opportunities”.
