Frontier Energy Limited announced results from its Renewable Expansion Technical Assessment completed by Xodus Group for the Company's 100% owned Bristol Springs Project located 120km from Perth in the South West region of Western Australia. The Expansion Study incorporated the total land under the Company's control (846ha) and assessed the various renewable energy solutions available. It concluded the optimal outcome was a solar-only solution that would produce at least 438MW.

The Company's long-term ambition is to generate in excess of 1GW of renewable energy as part of its green hydrogen strategy. Discussions regarding additional land opportunities in the region are ongoing. The Expansion Study followed the Stage One Hydrogen Pre-Feasibility Study1 that estimated production of approximately 4.4 million kilograms of green hydrogen per annum at a low-cost estimate (inclusive of capital) of $2.83 per kilogram of hydrogen produced.

This is expected to place the Project as one of the lowest cost producers of green hydrogen in Australia Future expansion (past Stage One) will likely see a further reduction in costs given economies of scale and shared associated infrastructure. The Project is located in the South West region of Western Australia approximately 120km from Perth and 8km from the town of Waroona. Frontier controls 846ha of ground in this region.

The Company engaged Xodus Group (Xodus) to undertake the following studies on the Project. Hydrogen Study ­ to assess the opportunity to develop a green hydrogen production facility based on an initial 114MW solar farm (Stage One); and Expansion Study ­ to assess the long-term growth potential of the Project based on the land under the Company's control and to consider the optimal mix of renewable energy solutions (wind and solar) for the Project. The Expansion Study assessed both solar and wind-power solutions.

It concluded that, whilst wind could be viable given its potential to produce energy in periods when solar is restricted (ie: night and winter) a number of factors made it a less competitive, including: the relatively low wind resource (capacity factor 33%) relatively high cost of infrastructure. potential approval complexities due to nearby wetlands; and the ability for the Project to be able to draw power from the SWIS via Landwehr Terminal. Based on the land under the Company's control (846ha), the total power generation possible from solar energy was estimated at 438MW.

The Hydrogen Study found that the Project would produce approximately 4.4 million kilograms of hydrogen per annum. Based on the key inputs this would result in a total cost3 of approximately $2.83 per kilogram of hydrogen produced. The key highlight of the Hydrogen Study is the low cost for hydrogen production.

This low cost is due to the Project's location being surrounded by existing infrastructure, which lowers the capital cost, whilst also allowing for additional income to be generated (through excess energy sales and Reserve Capacity Credits via connection to the SWIS at the Landwehr Terminal). The Expansion Study concluded that the Project site is relatively well-suited to solar expansion given the land is flat. The expansion plan proposes to use bifacial solar cells to collect sunlight on both the front and rear side of the solar panels.

The Project's expansion is estimated to generate total energy yield of 945 GWh/yr from an aggregated nominal power of 438MW installed giving a performance ratio of 86%. This relatively high solar efficiency has been enabled by strategic application of the following: Optimisation of tracker operation. Implementation of backtracking.

Implementation of bifacial panels (with correct Albedo5). Increased inverter efficiencies from Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) parameter optimisation. Xodus developed a number of wind farm concepts over a number of land parcels and carried out early energy yields assessments for each.

The proposed wind farm configurations were aimed to supplement solar farm concepts developed across the site, before optimising the split of the overall development between wind and solar for the optimal energy yield and lowest levelised cost of hydrogen (LCOH). As part of the Expansion Study, Xodus undertook a wind resource analysis, performed wind flow modelling, generated proposed layouts, undertook energy yield modelling and CAPEX and OPEX modelling. Xodus concluded that the low wind resource, relatively high cost of infrastructure and potential approval complexities associated with a nearby RAMSAR wetland area in addition to having the option of drawing energy from the grid, meant wind was not a competitive proposition.

On this basis, Xodus recommended that the Project pursue a solar-only development for all planned expansion. Battery storage has been deemed uneconomic due to the high capital cost against limited duration. The duration of battery storage is up to around 4 hours.

Matching battery capacity to the maximum solar capacity results in storage of approximately 2,330MWh (4 hours at 582MW), which would involve capex of ~$1.1bn. As the Project has the alternative of power from the grid when needed, use of battery storage is not economic.